So Much For Vacation
by Lizzy Sidle
Summary: Catherine, Greg, Sara, and Ecklie are sent to an international forensics seminar in Australia. When their plane crashes in the middle of nowhere, it appears they and two small children are the only survivors. Or are they? Completed November 1, 2005.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Sara was irritated. She was cramped into a small seat in the middle aisle of coach class, on a practically empty airplane. She was incredibly tired, eyes itchy, and legs heavy. Greg sat to her right, fast asleep and snoring lightly, his hands twitching randomly as he slept. To his right sat Catherine, eyes drooping half-closed, head resting on her flattened fist. Both were as drained as Sara was on this 16-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. However, none of these reasons accounted for her aggravation.

To her left, in the final seat of their row, sat a stiff, ill-tempered Conrad Ecklie. More than anything, his mere presence was enough to change her frame of mind. Every little sigh he heaved and every single shift in his seat he made gave Sara the incredible urge to slap his balding head. Each page turn or lick of his finger made her want to grab the book he was reading and toss it across the ten or so deserted rows in front of them.

She sighed and crossed her legs, tapping her right toes against the seat in front of her and drumming her fingers against her seat's arm. She shoved her tongue into her cheek and bit down. To add to her annoyance of being seated next to Ecklie, she was bored. She finished the three books she brought along three hours ago and, shamefully, she hadn't brought anything else to do. There were still ten hours left in their flight, so they had probably just passed over Hawaii. Those ten hours seemed like an eternity in Sara's eyes and she was half-tempted to play Tetris on the video screen on the seat in front of her.

The reason that all four of them were on this plane in the first place was an important forensics conference in Australia. It was an instructional visit, to examine forensic methods of other countries, and Grissom had specifically picked Sara and Greg to go. Catherine went upon request and Ecklie was along for a different reason. Sheriff Atwater had partly ordered him to travel. In Ecklie's words, it was to keep an eye on the other three and make sure nobody got themselves into trouble with the Australians, though all three non-dayshift people highly doubted that.

So Sara, Greg, Catherine, and Ecklie had all boarded the plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, a mere 45-minute flight, and then onto this airplane for 16 hours of sitting in one spot with nothing to do. Sara would be sitting in Catherine's seat now and Catherine in hers if Ecklie hadn't ordered them to sit in the spots indicated by their boarding passes. Flustered about where her pass had her seated, Sara had huffed silently to herself, shoving her carryon underneath the deserted seat before her and trying her best to ignore the unsmiling Ecklie.

"Will you stop that?"

Ecklie's voice snapped her out of the boredom-induced recollection. She turned her head to his stern face, wicked half-frown plastered on it.

"What?" she asked, exasperation evident in her voice.

"_Tapping_…" Ecklie hissed, gesturing at her pattering fingers and drumming foot. "It's distracting me from my _book_."

"Sorry," Sara said, throwing him a sarcastic smile. She stopped, and instead occupied herself by picking at a hangnail. It began to sting, so she bit it off quickly.

"That's disgusting." Ecklie was, once again, on her case.

"Why?"

"You just bit off part of your skin."

"It was a hangnail, and you're not allowed to bring nail-clippers onto the plane."

Ecklie opened his mouth to speak, but Catherine's voice made itself heard, weary as it sounded.

"Will you two stop arguing? Please? I'm trying to sleep."

Sara and Ecklie both turned their gazes towards her, abandoning their squabbling if only for a moment. She was bringing out one of the pillows given to each passenger at the beginning of the flight, tucking it under her reddish-blonde head and sighing as she sunk into its depths.

Sara turned back to Ecklie.

"_Now_ look what you did," she jeered, though she didn't really mean it. Pushing Ecklie's buttons was all too entertaining.

"_I _didn't do anything."

"Will you excuse me, please? I need to take a walk around," she said, standing and smoothing out her specially bought, crimson silk blouse. The blood rushed back to her legs, causing the newly acquired numbness in them to pass away.

"Go _right_ ahead." Ecklie muttered cynically, pulling his legs up from the floor of the plane.

"Of course," She squeezed past Ecklie's slack-covered legs and into the aisle, placing her hands casually into her jean pockets and walking off. Fear of DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis, kept her walking every couple of hours. A disease where a blood clot forms in your legs, due to little movement, DVT gave you a sudden, unanticipated death that Sara wasn't in the mood to have.

She walked up the hallway towards the bathroom. There were only about five other people in the airplane, not counting the flight attendants and pilots in the cockpit of the plane. The first person was in the front of the plane, in seat 1B. An old woman, close to the age of seventy, sat there quietly, occupying herself with the small television screen in front of her, selecting from the list of movies.

The other four passengers were family, a man, woman, and their two children. They were seated at the back of the plane. Sara approached them slowly, smiling pleasantly as she neared. She made it look as if she were on her way to the bathroom, when really she was just longing for some company other than a sleeping Greg, irritable Catherine, and bad-tempered Ecklie.

"Hey there," she said, more to the three-year-old girl looking her way, than the rest of the family. She eased to a stop, smiling at the cute girl. Her hair was a dusty brown, curly, with straight cut bangs. Her big, brown eyes held a sort of mischief behind them and their black lashes.

"Hi…" she said, smiling sweetly. She seemed just as anxious in her small, short body as Sara was in her tall one. She wasn't in her seat, but in front of it, playing with some toys scattered across its surface.

Sara smiled again, and then turned her face to the girl's parents and slightly older brother.

"Hi there," The two adults smiled at her.

"Hi," the woman replied. She was seated to the right of the little girl and on her right was her husband, who answered Sara with a grin and wave. Sara returned it then gazed at the girl playing quietly. She sensed her and turned around to her, two toys in her small hands.

"Are you going to play with me?" she asked with the faultiness of a someone with limited speaking experience.

Sara chuckled lightly and stuttered, "Uhh…d-do you want me to?"

In response, the bold child stepped up to her, reached up with her right hand and pulled Sara's left downwards. She shoved a small, plastic McDonalds Barbie doll into Sara's palm.

"Oh, Lauren…" her mother exclaimed. " You don't have to play with her."

"No I don't mind." She was telling the truth. She didn't mind, she was slightly stunned. Lauren turned around briskly and waddled back to her seat.

"Come on," the little girl ordered. "We're playing house."

When she realized Sara hadn't joined her, she twisted back around.

"What are you doing?"

"You know, I'm not very good at playing house."

Lauren pondered that for a moment, before shrugging it off and turning back to her imaginings.

"She's very sweet." Sara acknowledged as Lauren began speaking between her two dolls.

"Thank you." The woman said pleasantly. She outstretched a hand, which Sara leaned forward to shake, holding the doll in her left hand.

"Lily Peterson." Her hair was remarkably like her daughter's, but longer and slightly faded. Her eyes were round, a bluish-green crystal color, which reminded Sara of some of the pictures she had seen of Australia's ocean shores.

"Sara Sidle," Sara replied as they broke apart. She then shook the man's hand, who introduced himself as Joseph. His head had a strong hairline, the hair from the top of his head completely gone and the hairline stretching down in a bowl shape. His facial features were pleasant, a boyish sort of handsome. The man reminded Sara partially of Grissom with no beard and less hair, as well as no double chin.

"And who's that?" Sara gestured at a slumbering boy, about seven years old, by the window.

"This is Matt," Joseph declared, patting the boy's small shoulder as he slept.

"How old are they?" Sara inquired.

"Matt is seven and Lauren just turned three." Joseph replied.

"He looks a lot like you."

"Got his old man's good looks…more hair though…"

Sara chuckled along with Lily.

"So what brings you to Sydney all alone?" Joseph asked after his little quip.

"Oh, I'm not alone," Sara corrected. "I'm here with one of my colleagues and two others from different shifts."

"Work?"

"Forensics conference in downtown Sydney—we're crime scene investigators."

Joseph raised an intrigued eyebrow.

"Interesting work?"

Sara nodded, "It gets pretty strange sometimes." That was probably the understatement of the year. They uncovered some of the most bizarre actions of human behavior. 'Strange' was the very least of what they saw every day.

"What about you? What are you going to Australia for?" Sara asked, wanting to drive the conversation away from herself.

"Ah, I was an exchange student way back in the day. We're all headed over to say hi and hang out for a bit with the people I stayed with."

"Where are you from?" Lily interrupted.

"Las Vegas."

"Ooo…you like the big city?"

"It's all right. I grew up in a small city outside of San Francisco, Tamales Bay. Ever hear of it?"

The adults shook their heads.

"We're from Oregon." Joseph declared.

"Oregon, Wisconsin," his wife corrected. "Another small town."

Sara grinned and the group fell silent. Lauren was the only talkative one, creating communication between her two toys.

"I should…probably give this back." Sara said suddenly, realizing that she was still holding the doll. "Lauren," Sara tapped the girl's shoulder. She spun around and her gaze met Sara's then looked down at her palm. "Here you go, have your doll back."

Lauren turned back around. "No thank you," she said with a small sigh.

Sara raised an eyebrow at Lauren as she continued playing.

"Are you a mother?" Lily asked, causing Sara to glance back her way.

Sara shook her head.

"That's what I thought."

"How can you tell?"

Lily smiled. "Well for one thing, no wedding ring. That's not a good indicator but it makes your chances slightly slimmer." They both glanced down at her undecorated left hand. "Also, you admitted you didn't know how to play house. That could mean that you're possibly the mother of a boy, but mothers of girls _always _know how to play house. And you acted surprised when she didn't want the toy."

Sara smirked guiltily

"And here it's my job to be observant."

Suddenly the seatbelt light blinked on, drawing their attention to the unspoken command.

"I need to go." Sara said, slightly reluctantly. She didn't want to sit by Ecklie. She _really_ didn't want to sit by Ecklie. She tucked the doll into her back jean pocket.

"Well it was nice speaking with you." Lily held out her hand for another shake. Sara took and shook it, and then took Joseph's hand.

"Goodbye Lauren," Sara smiled at the little girl, giving her a small wave as she turned. The girl returned it as her mother cleared the seat of toys and buckled Lauren in.

"Bye-Bye!" Lauren cried.

Sara grinned and waved again, striding as slowly as possible back to her seat. Her legs finally had the feeling back in them, and her mood had lightened slightly. Restraining herself from stepping on Ecklie's toes, she took her seat and buckled in quickly, double-checking that her carryon was tightly in its place. She then prodded Greg in the shoulder.

"Greg…" she said.

He groaned, sighed, and sunk deeper into his sleep.

"Greg!" Sara said, louder and sterner.

"Mmm…" Even in sleep, his voice was agitated.

"Wake up!" Sara grabbed his shoulder and shook it lightly.

"Wh-what? I'm up…What are you doing here? Errrrr…" he shouted, jumping awake and throwing fleeting glances around the plane.

"Greg, settle down. You just need to buckle up."

Greg wiped his eyes wearily, yawning. "And here I thought I was sleeping at my house…and woke up next to you!" He laughed cheerily, only causing another yawn, receiving some very stern looks from Ecklie. Gulping back his chuckles, he buckled himself into his seat.

"Make sure Cath has hers on too…" Sara ordered.

Greg did just that.

"Yep. Should I wake her up?"

"She'll be mad at you."

Greg shrugged it off then poked and prodded Catherine until she too was awake with the rest of them.

"Whaaat…?" Catherine groaned, clearing some hair from her face, straightening her navy blue shirt, and sitting upright in her seat.

"Buckle light's on."

"So? Mine's on…"

Just then, the intercom beeped. The entire plane fell into a thick silence.

"Goo'day," The pilot's Australian accent was thick as he spoke over the intercom. "It's an afternoon in the Pacific ocean…hope you're all doing good. We have a slight issue I'd like to address before any questions are asked. There's an unidentified aircraft in the area, and that's why I wanted you all to put your seatbelts on. We're trying to contact them to tell them to pull away. They're a bit close. We tell you that this is no need to panic—just a bit of air travel trouble. We're going to pull the airplane down a bit, beneath the clouds, just so that we give them a bit of space. We'll keep you informed and if you have any questions just ask the stewardess."

The intercom clicked off and the CSI's glanced around at each other. All were thinking the same thing.

"What are they thinking, terrorists?" Greg asked Sara.

"They made it sound like just some idiot flying too close." Sara insisted, though she wasn't herself sure, that was the entire story.

"Yeah well, I'm positive terrorists weren't on the itinerary." Ecklie crabbed.

"There's no indication that it's even terrorists." Catherine snapped quietly. "Like Sara said, it just seems to be some idiot flying too close."

The plane's nose tipped forward slightly and pressure began to build behind Sara's eardrums. She swallowed uncomfortably and leaned back into her seat. The surrounding people seemed to express the same discomfort. After about a minute, the plane leveled out and Sara let out a relieved breath, bringing out a piece of gum to un-pop her ears.

"Hand me one of those, why don't you?" Ecklie half-ordered, holding out a hand for a stick of gum.

"And why should I?"

"Because even in another country, I can fire you."

Sara glared, but handed him a stick all the same.

"You owe me," she declared.

"Turn around Sidle."

With a smirk, Sara turned back to Greg and Catherine. They talked randomly for a few minutes before the intercom clicked on yet again.

"Excuse me, again, but the aircraft is not leaving. I'd like to put you all on the alert. We may need to evacuate the plane. Be prepared."

It went off and they exchanged fleeting looks again, much more worried this time.

"You still sure they're not terrorists?" Greg asked.

"Greg, they probably don't have—"

Unexpectedly, a sudden bang exploded through the air, the decibel count close to that of a million freight trains. After the bang, it sounded as if somebody screamed. No one could tell whom. The lights flickered out. The oxygen masks popped down and the half-blinded CSI's struggled to find them and put them on. Sara breathed deeply into the oxygen mask, her palms sweaty, and knees beginning to shake from fear.

What in the world was going on? She already knew. She just didn't want to admit it was happening. She recognized that noise.

The plane tilted, and began to roll onto its side. Again, somebody screamed but Sara was too flustered to tell who it could possibly be—maybe the flight attendant. She clenched the arms of her seat, squeezing until her knuckles went from white to purple. Greg, amidst his slight panic managed to glance Sara's way, and then Catherine's.

He, Sara, and Catherine, demonstrated the same fear, the same crippling weakness as the plane tilted even more. Ecklie didn't appear struck with fear, but he everyone knew he was just as, if not more, frightened than everyone else. Greg cleared his mind enough to set his two hands on the women's clenched fingers. Their fingers laced through his and he attempted to give them a reassuring squeeze.

Another enormous bang sounded, and the plane tilted even more, taking a direct nosedive downwards.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Air. She desperately needed _air_. Her lungs screamed for it, hammered against her chest with the yearning for it. Catherine was engulfed by water, every inch of her body soaked with it, stuck inside of it. In a slight, thoughtless panic, she opened her eyes amidst the tons of ocean surrounding her. She closed them immediately, glancing nothing more but a blur of blue. Her eyes stung horribly and she cursed herself for opening them in the first place.

The lack of oxygen brought her attention back to her predicament, her lungs pounding horribly. Catherine reached up to her face and wrenched off the waterlogged and useless oxygen mask still plastered onto her face. She felt around with her hands in the blackness, reaching for her seatbelt. She found and undid it, floating upwards slightly as her restraint was lifted. Again, she felt around towards Greg's seat, where he should be. He wouldn't have left her, would he? He wouldn't have left anyone. Her already struggling heart missed a beat when she felt nothing where there should have been something. Her lungs screamed again, screamed at her for not getting them what they needed.

Holding back a reflexive gasp, Catherine reached farther forward and with a wave of relief, she felt somebody—a thigh perhaps. The next moment, somebody had wrapped their fingers around Catherine's wrist and tugged her forward through the water. She was unable to decipher who was pulling her; her head was spinning. The guide swam forward and Catherine allowed herself to flow with them. Then suddenly the person stopped. Catherine's brain yelled and she sputtered out a bubble of carbon dioxide. Her mouth filled with water and she closed her throat up again, her lungs once more hollering at her, _why are you not breathing? Breathe! Breathe! _She couldn't breathe.

Then she was heaved forward again, her leg brushing against something as she moved ahead. Her guide began pulling her upwards and she realized where they were going. She was out of the plane's skin. With a frenetic wrench of her wrist, she pulled away from her guide and frantically kicked her feet, propelling herself towards the surface. She kicked, her lungs protesting with sharp, painful, stabs into her chest. She sputtered out more bubbles of air and they floated upwards. _Just one more kick…one more push…_

Just when she thought she might pass out, her head emerged from the ocean, a sheet of the salt-water flowing backwards over her head and pulling her hair out of her face. She gasped, taking in giant swallows of air, a source of life she had taken for granted until now. She spat out the water inside her mouth, gasping desperately as if she were still flailing about underwater. She treaded water, using one hand to clear her face and eyes of the burning saltwater.

Catherine glanced around, panting as the rush of oxygen steadied her heart and brain. Sara was only a few feet from her right, sputtering and gasping just as she was. Greg was to her left, breathing deeply, his breathing coming in soft pants. Across from her swam Ecklie, hundred-dollar-suit soaked and ruined. His swimming seemed faultier than the others, for he treaded water with random, frantic strokes and kicks.

"What the _hell_ happened?" Catherine managed, her voice cracking. She spat out another mouthful of seawater.

"Our plane was shot down?" Greg offered.

"But how? _Why_? Why _our_ plane?" Catherine demanded.

"Every 20 seconds an airplane in the US has to make an emergency landing." Sara mumbled, "We didn't have anywhere to land so we crashed."

Catherine sighed and glanced behind her. Half of the plane was sticking at a 40-degree angle out of the water. The edge closest to the water was scrunched like an accordion.

"I told you that other plane was full of terrorists," Ecklie hissed.

No one said anything to that.

"What about the other people on the plane?" Greg questioned in the silence.

Sara, whose breathing had finally steadied, cursed loudly, receiving a stern reprimand from Ecklie. Something plastic was digging into her thigh, and she had just remembered what it was. Her face fell, and she turned around to face the plane.

"Sara? Are you all right?" Catherine asked.

"There were two kids on that plane Cath. And their parents. And that older woman."

"I'm sure they made it fine, Sara." Greg reassured her.

"The kids were _seven_ and _three_ Greg!"

"They're probably on the other side of the wreck with their parents," Catherine offered.

"I'm going to go make sure." Sara declared. She took in a deep breath, preparing to swim under, but Catherine suddenly placed a firm hand on her shoulder, paddling with her other limbs.

"Sara, stop and think,"

"What's there to think about?' Sara shrieked.

"Smell…" Catherine ordered.

Sara blinked. "What…?'

"Smell the air."

Sara stared at Catherine, who stared back. Then she took in one…two sniffs of air and her heart sank.

"Gas," she groaned.

Catherine averted her eyes to the water.

"You can't go in there Sara. The plane could blow up any second."

"But the people—"

"Forget about them Sara. I can't let you go in there after something, find out their not there, and then get blown up before you can get out."

Sara sighed, staring longingly at the plane. Then she dug into her pocket, pulling out the plastic doll digging into her thigh. Kicking her feet harder to stay afloat, she held it out in front of her and gazed at it, nothing but the vision of Lauren floating in her mind. Catherine looked down at it too.

"I remember…there was a little girl on that plane. I remember her from when we were boarding. Cute kid,"

"There's no way she could have made it Catherine. She was only three years old. She wouldn't be able to swim. There's no way."

Catherine bit her lip and turned her face to the airplane.

"Can we cut the sap talk and think about the living people—_us—_are going to do?" Ecklie snapped.

The two women spun around in the water, Sara stuffing the Barbie back in her pocket.

"Shut up Ecklie," Sara spat, "Tell us when you figure something out."

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, his eyebrows furrowing in indignation.

"I think he has a point Sara…" Greg said meekly.

"Whose side are you on Greg?"

"Who's taking sides? We're stranded in the middle of the Pacific and I think we should think of something to do."

"Greg—"

But suddenly, a sizzling sound reached their ears, and then—

BOOM!

A giant ball of fire exploded, engulfing the airplane in a spinning, curling blaze of smoke and flame. Debris shot in several directions, smoldering at the tips. The CSI's ducked, shielding their faces as hot smoke suffocated them for a moment.

"Ah!" Greg cried. The debris settled down around them, the smoke lifting, though the plane continued to blaze. "I got hit…piece of something sliced my arm."

Sara and Catherine turned to face him. His sleeve was torn from wrist to halfway to elbow, a lengthy cut following its trail, scarlet blood streaming from it slowly. Greg attempted to mop it up with his hand.

"Take off your shirt." Sara ordered.

"Never thought I'd hear that from you Sara…"

"Don't joke with me. Take off your shirt and I'll wrap it around your arm for now. We'll have to find land or something to take care of that properly." She paddled forward and waited for Greg to pull off his white t-shirt and hand it to her. She then began pulling it tighter and tighter across the wound. Blood seeped through it immediately, but at least it would be compressed.

"Now what Cath?" Sara asked, turning back to the woman. Catherine was hovering slowly in the water, staring in concentration.

"Cath?"

"Shh…"

"What?"

"Listen…"

Sara went quiet, treading water as slowly as possible, leaning backwards slightly to take some pressure off her worn out legs. She heard something…faint, in the distance.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Somebody's calling for help." Catherine replied.

"Who?"

Sara strained her ears, but couldn't determine who was calling.

"Somebody young."

Sara's heart skipped a beat and her jaw dropped. Could it be? One or both of the kids were alive? Maybe their parents too?

Then suddenly, Catherine took off swimming as hard as she could around the flaming plane. Sara followed once she realized that the noise was not from the plane, but beyond the plane. So they _had_ survived. Greg followed her, leaving Ecklie treading water on the other side of the plane.

Catherine breaststroked her way forward, around the plane, Sara following, and Greg tagging after her. She rounded a corner and then glimpsed something that kicked her mothering instincts into overdrive.

One floating airplane seat cushion bobbed half-underneath water, half-above, a little boy kicking as hard as he could, one arm wrapped tightly around his younger sister's waist, attempting to hold her above the water. The other was holding the makeshift floatation device, which his sister was also desperately clinging onto.

As soon as Catherine spotted them, her heart skipped a beat, and she dove forward, custom swimming her way along. Both of the children were sobbing hysterically. The boy was spitting out water as he bobbed under and back in a constant battle to stay above with the weight of his sister. Catherine scooped the crying girl up in her arms, then pulled the boy further onto the seat cushion so he could rest.

"Lauren!" Sara cried, coming around the corner and spotting Catherine struggling with the two children. Sara swam forward, Greg still following. Catherine leaned back to a floating position, holding Lauren up as best she could. Her arms were tiring already, as well as her legs. Lauren was sobbing still, a panicked look on her face, her big brown eyes wide. Her curls were flat against her head, her clothes soaked through. When she spotted Sara, she reached out to her with another loud cry.

"Here, you take her Sara, she wants you," Catherine said breathlessly. Lauren was passed and Catherine then turned her attention to the boy whose eyes were closed and his chest heaving with wild breaths.

"Hey, hey…calm down…calm down a bit…it's all right. We're here." Catherine soothed. She reached out to Matt and combed through his brown hair with her fingers. He sucked up a small pool of water and sat up, coughing harshly.

"Does he have a name?" Catherine asked Sara. She had known Lauren's name after all. Sara told her quietly, attempting to soothe Lauren, whose shoulders were shaking as she too breathed erratically.

"Hey, hey Matt…" Catherine said softly, still trying to calm him. "Hey…I'm Catherine…I was on the plane with you."

Matt opened his chocolate eyes and gazed at Catherine, his tears unrecognized amongst the water.

"My-my d-dad…h-he…went back inside the p-plane t-to get m-my mom. B-but…" He stopped. Catherine knew what he meant.

"It's all right Matt…" Catherine comforted.

"H-How do you know m-my n-name?" he asked, still clinging desperately to the seat.

"Sara…my friend Sara told me your name."

Matt looked over at Sara as she floated with Lauren.

"How did s-she know m-my name?"

Catherine shrugged.

"I spoke to your parents." Sara answered. "You were sleeping."

"Are they all right?" Greg asked from his quiet perch to the right.

"Are you all right?" Catherine questioned Matt. "Physically?"

"What does 'p-physically' mean?"

"On your body, do you have any cuts, scrapes, anything broken?"

Matt shook his head.

"Good,"

"Lauren's fine." Sara declared.

"Hey!"

Once again, Ecklie was making himself heard. He swam clumsily towards them, his suit still on despite the fact it was weighing him down considerably.

"What?" Sara spat.

"These are the kids you were talking about?"

"_Yes_."

"Hmm…Well now that they're here, can we think of _something_ to do?"

The four adults fell silent while Lauren and Matt sniffled slightly.

"Well," Sara began quietly, "we have a better chance surviving on land than in water."

"One problem—no land!" Ecklie screeched, coming closer still. His head dipped under water then came back up as he struggled to swim properly.

"Not so fast…" Greg mumbled quietly, staring blankly in the opposite direction of the plane's tail.

"What?" Ecklie managed, spraying water from his mouth and kicking hard.

"Look," Greg said. He pointed with his un-bandaged arm towards the blue and dark blue horizon. Barely recognizable was the black silhouette of a small strip of land.

"That's _great_ Sanders, except that island is probably oh…two or three miles away!"

"How are we going to alternate?" Catherine asked, ignoring Ecklie's comments of oppression.

"First things first…" Greg declared, "Matt, how well can you swim?"

"Greg!"

"Well there's only one seat cushion and Lauren's going to need that."

Catherine glanced at him sternly then mumbled,

"If you can swim all right, we need to give this cushion to your sister."

Matt nodded, pushing the seat away from him and treading water. He was better at it than Ecklie.

Catherine handed the floater to Sara, who transferred Lauren from her half-submerged lap to the seat. Lauren gripped its edges instantly as Sara supported the floatation device and Lauren's legs.

"All right…so…how's this going to work," Catherine thought aloud. "One person needs to swim with Lauren and two…or three…" She acknowledged Ecklie with a small nod. "The others will swim out here with Matt and help him when he needs it. Sound like a plan?"

The others nodded.

"Sara, you swim with Lauren first. She knows you already."

Sara agreed.

"All right…Matt you just tell us whenever you need help."

In response, Matt began swimming towards the shadow of the island.

"Greg, is your arm all right?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. Stings 'cause of all the saltwater but it's fine for now."

"Hey, are you guys coming?" Sara asked. She was already on Matt's tail, kicking her feet, her two arms enveloping Lauren, and holding the cushion's sides. Catherine and Greg took off after her, leaving Ecklie alone.

"You'll all be sorry when I get found first!" Ecklie called after their disappearing backs. "And I will! Trust me!" No response. "Hey! Hey, are you listening to me? Hey!" They continued swimming. Ecklie cursed under his breath and glanced around. Nothing but the sounds of the crackling fire to his right and the gentle splash of waves around him could be heard. "Hey! As your boss, I order you to wait up! Hey! Wait!" He began doggy-paddling towards them as best he could, ignoring the fact that his suit was hindering him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Stroke, kick, stroke, kick, shift Lauren, stroke, kick, stroke, kick; this was the pattern Greg followed during his turn helping the small child stay afloat. One arm wrapped around the airplane seat, the other stroking in rhythm, Lauren pressed gently between his chest and the cushion.

"So…where are you two from?" Greg grunted, pausing his strokes to push Lauren further onto the seat.

"Wisconsin," Matt answered from his lead position in the assembly line.

"Oh, so you're cheese-heads?"

"Greg!" Catherine scolded lightly. She was almost last, if only for Ecklie, who was struggling to keep up with the rest.

"Well it's true."

"What does cheese-head mean?" Matt asked, turning onto his back for a moment and kicking softly.

"It's just a nickname for people from Wisconsin," Sara muttered, closing the two foot gap between her and the boy and giving him a slight shove towards the nearing island. They had been swimming for approximately an hour, taking breaks here and there to float and rest. The island was probably no more than half a mile away now; its banks were distinguishable and the tip of a small mountain peak surrounded by tropical foliage was clear.

Stroke, kick, stroke, kick.

"Where are _you_ from?" Matt asked, complying with Sara's cue to keep at a quick pace.

"Viva Las Vegas!" Greg cried, though he didn't sing.

"Where's that?"

"Nevada,"

"Hey, Greg?" Catherine butted into the conversation, her voice strained as she stretched her neck to keep above water, "Could we possibly keep our energy for swimming instead of talking? We can do all that once we get to the island."

"For your information, I have plenty of energy left. I was top long-distance swimmer back in middle school."

"Oh really?" Catherine's voice was full to the brim with skepticism. "And where would that be?"

"Well…it was technically doing laps around my four-foot-deep pool, but if I hadn't been laughed at in second grade during those mandatory swimming lessons I could have been an Olympic swimmer!"

"Greg, stop trying to fool yourself." She spat out a mouthful of water and thrust herself forward so she was just to the left of Greg's flittering feet.

"You're just jealous."

"Why would that be?"

However, Greg had stopped listening, and was now preoccupied with Lauren, who was watching the conversation curiously with her big brown eyes. Greg shifted himself so he had a freehand, and used it to tickle Lauren gently beneath the chin.She screeched gleefully and shrunk backwards with a giant smile on her face.

Catherine rolled her eyes, and turned her attention to Sara who was slightly struggling to keep herself and Matt afloat.

"Want to switch Sara? I think it's your turn to deal with the only real child here."

Sara glanced over her shoulder, her strings of wet brunette hair spinning around with her, droplets of water flying off their tips.

"Sure…"

Catherine sped up, and Sara slowed down.

"Catherine woke up from a nappy." Greg cooed to Lauren, resuming his original position. Stroke, kick, stroke, kick. "She gets cranky when you wake her up from a nappy."

"Greg, don't make me slap you in front of the kids." Catherine warned, glancing over her shoulder at him, one of her arms around Matt's chest.

"Will you both be quiet for a minute, please?" Sara snapped. She was still rather irritable. That was how she dealt with things, such as planes crashing in the middle of the ocean with her still inside.

"Sara's cranky too, but she's always a cranky old witch so—Ow! Hey!" Greg's head swiveled back to glare at Sara. "Sara!"

"What?" she said innocently.

"You kicked me!"

"I did not."

"Yes you did! Right after I said you were a cranky old witch!"

"I didn't kick you."

"Did to!"

"Greg, I'm having trouble just staying above water. Do you _really_ think that I kicked you?"

Greg opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Ecklie, who, up until now, had remained quietly swimming behind them all.

"Both of you start acting your age. Please, it's just a petty matter."

Sara held her tongue, even though she hated to, using the bottled up frustration to propel herself further along.

They swam onwards, stroke, kick, stroke, kick. The island was drawing very close now. They could even hear the squawking of seabirds from the island's shore.

"Okay, that time I know it was you, Sara!"

"Greg, _what_ are you talking about? I'm all the way over here!" Angrily she gestured best she could at the three-foot gap between them.

"I happened to notice how long your legs are, is that a crime?"

"Well if you two don't shut up, there very well may be one…or two…crimes committed here tonight." Ecklie spat.

"Ecklie, _please_ don't–Oh…" Sara cursed and stopped swimming abruptly.

"What?"

"Greg, give me Lauren and show me your arm."

"What! Why?"

"Just do it!"

Greg reluctantly passed the child over with the floatation device and lifted his cloaked arm up out of the stinging saltwater.

"How's it feel?" Sara asked urgently.

"Stings, 'cause of the salt."

"Is it still bleeding, has it clotted?"

"I thought you said we'd wait for the island to take a—"

"I know what I said okay? Just bear with me, please."

Catherine had stopped swimming now, and was hovering there with Matt by her side. Ecklie halted as well, and his face clearly showed he was annoyed.

Greg's makeshift bandage was shining a bright crimson, despite being compressed very tightly.

"Greg," Sara began, her voice wavering. "Swim, swim hard."

The air turned thick as her words lingered in it. The others sat, (more _swam_) there with completely thunderstruck looks upon their faces.

"Sara…" Catherine said uneasily, "Are you thinking that…thinking…"

"I'm not thinking anything right now except we _have_ to get out of the water right now."

She gripped the cushion tightly and kicked as hard as her weary, burning muscles would allow. The others followed her, like a herd of confused sheep that had just been bitten by a wolf in sheep's clothing. Sara took the lead, frightened butterflies squirming in her stomach, punching it in a steady rhythm as she pressed onward.

The island was very close now, so close. Sara could feel the urge to put her feet down on soft sand, to run up to that shore and fall down in a blissful, worry-free rest. But of course, that wasn't happening right now. Right now, she was swimming from a hunch, a well-supported hunch, but a hunch all the same.

"Sara, could you explain, please?" Greg begged, falling into rhythm with her.

Kick, kick, kick, kick.

"One word Greg, sharks."

Greg looked dumbfounded, his boyish face morphing into one of concern.

"Sharks?"

"Just _swim_ Greg!"

"Don't you think that's a little bit Jaws?"

"What does it matter? We're almost on shore anyway!" Sara panted. In fact, they were almost there. A few more yards and they would be safe. Sara kicked ferociously, water flying out behind her. Her muscles burned, burned so badly, cramping. _No, don't you dare cramp!_ She attempted to stand up in the water and blessed her luck a hundred times over as her feet met with sand.

The water was about five-and-a-half-feet deep, settling somewhere around Sara's chin.

Step, step, swim, step.

The water level shrunk with each stride. Sara lifted Lauren off the seat cushion and placed her over her shoulder. Greg fell into step behind her, and then Catherine and Matt. The water was shallow enough for Sara to place Lauren on her hip, and she did so. Sara waded up to shore, the matter around her feet changing from water, to water and sand, to waves and sand, and finally: pure land.

Her weary muscles had finally had enough, and her knees buckled, sending her to a sitting position on the warm sand. Lauren wriggled out of her hold, and sat down as well. Sand stuck to Sara's soaked jeans, but she didn't care. Her legs could finally rest.

"Sara!"

Later anyway…

"What?" she groaned crossly.

"Ecklie's still out there." It was Catherine, pushing at her to help.

"Fine…"

Sara stood up, brushing the sand from her clothes. She began walking, and surprisingly Lauren followed, sticking her small hand into Sara's. Sara glanced down at the girl, who paid no attention to the fact that she had stirred surprise within the older woman.

Sara switched her gaze back to the waves ahead. Ecklie was thrashing through them, his over-the-top suit floating around him as he struggled to reach shore with the rest of them.

"Well I'm not going back in." Sara declared.

"Me neither." Greg agreed.

"Even though, technically it's your fault that a shark was following us?" Catherine pointed out.

"It wasn't _my_ fault. It was the plane's fault."

"Riiight…"

"So do we go in and get him or do we wait for him to come to us?" Sara questioned.

"I vote for waiting until he actually asks for help." Catherine opted.

"Well that'll be never."

"Uhh…guys?" Greg began. He bent his head to get a closer look at the struggling supervisor, who was now hitting his suit to keep it from floating up around him.

"Hmm?" Sara asked.

"You were right Sara."

They gazed out over the waves towards Ecklie, and distantly they could indeed spot the ominous triangular fin of something marine.

"Forgive me, Matt, Lauren," Catherine said with a hint of brightness in it. However, the happiness faded instantly, as she cursed under her breath.

"Ecklie!" they all shouted. He was distracted by the obstinate suit. "_Ecklie!_" He looked up. "Swim you idiot!" The man glanced around himself, spotted the fin now encircling him, and yelled out in fear and surprise.

"Damnit…" Catherine breathed. "What do we do?" she said, partially to herself.

"You're the mother, you get to stay here and baby-sit." Greg declared. He walked around behind Sara and plucked Lauren from the ground. The girl giggled playfully as he zoomed her over his head and placed her at Catherine's feet.

"Say, 'up'!" he ordered.

"Up!" Lauren repeated. She raised her hands to Catherine, who had no choice but to lift the toddler onto her hip.

"Sara, we get to rescue people today."

"Great…I get to save Ecklie's life…"

Greg grabbed the hesitant Sara's wrist and dragged her forward, leaving Catherine standing there with Lauren on her hip and Matt sitting cross-legged in the sand beside her.

"Ecklie! Stay calm and don't thrash!" Sara ordered as they drew nearer to the water. She wrenched her arm out of Greg's grip.

The man paid head, but still twitched around as he stared at the animal around him.

"Now swim slowly towards us." Greg commanded. They had reached the very edge of the waves, which crashed against their ankles gently.

Ecklie, who was about three yards from the shoreline, began to follow their orders cautiously swimming forward.

"Good…" Sara muttered with slight hints of sarcasm. "Keep coming and _don't panic._"

He continued carefully onward, his suit still full of water like a sponge. The fin came right up to Ecklie, hitting him in the back of the leg, causing the man's face to take on a look of panic, which before now, Sara would have found humorous.

"Ecklie, don't panic. He's not attacking yet. Get out of the water _now_." Greg ordered. The two on land stepped further into the water, until it hit their mid-calves, hands outstretched.

Ecklie managed to stand up and he waded forward. The shark once more bumped him in the back of the leg, swimming quickly away again. Ecklie latched his hands onto their hands and Sara kept herself from drawing away. They turned around and ran forward, Catherine hurrying towards them with Lauren and Matt.

"Let go of me!" Ecklie snapped, pulling his hands away from Sara and Greg with an evil sneer on his face as they made it onto the dry sand again.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to save your life like that Ecklie." Sara mumbled under her breath. She then dropped back to the ground, legs crossed, placing her head in her hands, and heaving an enormous sigh.

A heavy dropping sound next to her signaled somebody else had sat. She folded her hands and lifted her chin onto them, glancing towards the noise's origin. Greg was lying splayed out on the warm sand, eyes closed peacefully, bandaged arm resting on his bare chest, the other beneath his head.

Ecklie too, was sitting on the ground, though in a much more prim and proper way. His suit was gathering sand just as much as Sara's jeans and Greg's shorts. Only Catherine was left standing, staring out over the curling waves of the ocean.

Catherine was too tired to take in much of the sites right now; in fact, she was only going to stand like this long enough to glimpse the shark that had coursed fear through all their veins. And there it was, its pale white side flashing out of the water for a split second, its fin lifting itself in an almost wave as it swam away.

Lauren sighed softly, resting her small curly-top head against Catherine's side, closing her eyes and absentmindedly stroking Catherine's shirt, as if in comfort. Catherine vaguely remembered when Lindsey was as small as Lauren was, and in the back of her head, something of realization made itself known. They were on a uninhabited island with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"Day one of trip to Australia…" Catherine muttered aloud, finally sitting down across from Sara, Greg, and Ecklie, trying to distract herself from thinking of her daughter.

"Crash plane," Sara filled in.

"Get sliced by plane…" Greg mumbled, raising his bandaged hand.

"Rescue two kids…" Catherine muttered as Matt crawled up on her left, resting his head against her other side.

"Nearly drown, swimming three miles," Sara added.

"And almost get eaten by sharks." Ecklie piped in to everyone's surprise, his tone frustrated and angry.

"Well," Greg opened his eyes, exhaled noisily, and propped himself into a sitting position with his hands. "So much for vacation…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Something cold, wet, and very tiny dropped onto Greg's face. Then another, and another, and yet another. He opened his eyes wearily, letting them hover half-open, half-closed as he peered at his surroundings. His right arm burned painfully, coming in soft stabbing throbs that he ignored.

He couldn't see anything except gray clouds above as rain slowly drizzled down around him. Greg sat up, pulling his left hand out from beneath his head and shaking out the numbness in it. Sara was slumbering peacefully to his right, the backside of her jeans coated with the sand around them. She was on her back, eyes closed, her hands resting on her stomach, stray bits of damp dark hair beginning to curl.

Greg tore his eyes away from her and looked ahead where Catherine was dozing. She too was on her back, Lauren slept on her right, her brown hair mingling with grains of sand. Matt too was sleeping cozily, his head pressed on Catherine's left shoulder with the woman's arm enveloping him.

Greg exhaled through his nose, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his hands around them. Only one person was missing, and he had just realized it now. Where was Ecklie? Greg released his knees and looked around frantically. Ecklie should have been right there, on Greg's far left.

"Hey, hey Sara," Greg turned to her, poking her in the side.

"Hmmm…." Her eyebrows bent in anger and her original straight mouth turned to a frown. She rolled onto her side, away from Greg, and sighed, her body sagging as she fell back into a deep sleep.

"Sara!"

No response.

"Hey! Hey! Sara!" She still wouldn't say anything. Greg thought for a moment, then prayed for surviving the next five minutes. He took a deep breath, then shouted, "Oh my God there's a spider crawling on your back!"

"Whaaat…?" Sara groaned, as if she hadn't heard him properly.

"There's a spider on your back! Kill it! Kill it!"

Sara's eyes bugged out and she yelped, a hand snapping around to her back and reaching to brush off the spider that was not there. Greg was laughing, slapping his knee as an extra, unnecessary measure.

"_GREG!_" Sara roared, sitting up completely and turning to face him, "That's _not_ funny!"

"Yeah it is!" he cried, shaking with his laughter, his eyes watering amongst the film of drizzle dampening it already.

"_No_ it isn't!"

"I thought you weren't afraid of bugs?" Greg managed to gasp through his snickers.

"I'm _not_ but you caught me off guard."

"Is that it? I caught you off guard?"

Sara leaned forward, resting her forehead in her hand and heaving a sigh that raised her shoulders.

"What was the point of that anyway?" Sara snapped.

"To wake you up."

"Yeah, well I'm awake, now why'd you want me awake in the first place?"

"Ecklie's gone."

"Good, maybe a jaguar ate him. Or maybe that shark came back. Or maybe I got rid of him in my sleep. Frankly, I don't care how he went as long as he's gone. I'm not going to live with him on a freaking deserted island. I'm going back to bed…" Sara suddenly caught sight of the sand she was sitting on, "I mean sleep…" She made to turn around and hunker down, but Greg shot out a hand and grabbed her shoulder.

"You're not going back to bed, because we have to go find him."

"Why...? I already saved his life once today; I shouldn't have to do it again!" Sara brushed his hand off her shoulder and turning yet again to face him.

"Your hair is curly." Greg stated randomly, taking in notice of her no longer straight hair.

"What? Oh…Damnit!" She reached up to her hair, pulling on a strand of it. It stretched out, and when she let go it sprung back into a curl. "Well that's just great."

"I haven't seen your hair curly since you first got to the lab." Greg stated, tilting his head to one side. "But you know what? I'll stop reminding you it's curly if you help me go find Ecklie."

Sara stood up, reaching out and brushing the sand from her jeans and shirt as best she could. She stated that she'd take care of her hair later, then ordered Greg to wake up Catherine, Matt, and Lauren. "We need to get out of the drizzle anyway," is how she put it. He did so, receiving many protests from Catherine

"Okay…so…we're CSI's, it should be easy for us to find another CSI, right? Or at least a politically centered CSI." Greg said in a strange, bright, and overly confident voice.

"Of course it should be." Catherine agreed.

"Footprints lead in that direction," Sara offered, pointing away from the ocean waves and through to a rainforest in front of them. The island mainly was forest, forest starting about twenty or so feet from the ocean and creeping around the rest of the mile-wide island, forest creeping up a mountain slope, forest surrounding the small inlet of sand the CSI's had found themselves in once they arrived.

"Well then let's—"

But suddenly leaves rustled in the direction Sara had pointed. Thin palm trees waved back and forth and foliage crunched. Then, Ecklie stumbled out. In his arms were piles of palm fronds, bamboo-like poles, vines, ferns, and a whole bunch of other materials.

"Found him." Sara said flatly.

"Ecklie, what are you doing? You had us worried!" Catherine called to him. Worried was probably an overstatement, more like 'worried that when they were found and he was dead, they would be blamed'. The woman passed Lauren, who had been resting on her hip, over to Sara and walked up to Ecklie.

"What are you doing Ecklie?" Catherine asked with an impatient tone.

"I'm building a shelter."

"Really?" Catherine raised her eyebrows skeptically and stared at Ecklie as if seeing him in a new perspective.

"Yes, there's some more back there if you want to find your own stuff to make your own shelter."

Catherine's jaw dropped. _Of course. He was making a shelter…for himself._

"That's great Ecklie."

"Hey, Cath!" Greg was calling.

"See ya Ecklie, have fun."

"I will."

Catherine turned back and rolled her eyes as she walked up to Greg, who was standing alone with Matt.

"Where'd Sara go?"

"She found a cave." Greg was beaming.

"Where?"

Greg pointed to his right with his bandaged arm. Catherine could just make out Sara's red shirt, weaving through the vegetation towards an earthy colored mound.

"Come on," Greg took off after Sara, Matt following him with his narrow, athletic little boy legs.

Catherine glanced first at Ecklie, who appeared to be having difficulties assembling his would be fortress.

"Hey, Ecklie! We found a cave, come on! It'll be easier."

Ecklie did nothing but look up, glare at her, then return to his chore. Catherine sighed, then followed Greg through the underbrush.

* * *

"I don't see any bats," Sara announced, scouting the cavern.

"Me neither." Greg affirmed.

Lauren suddenly said, "It's dark in here." Sara patted the girls shoulder soothingly, even though the girl had just stated the obvious, not meaning she was frightened.

"I can't see much." Matt groped around, and found Greg's belt loop. He stuck a finger through it, in a measure to make sure he wasn't separated from the group.

"First things first...Somebody needs to go out and grab some wood before the rain gets it all." Sara bossed.

"I'll do that." Catherine answered, before ducking out of the cave.

"And step two?" Greg prodded.

"We need light, which mean we need fire, which means that we may be out of luck if we can't get anything going. I hear some water though…hope to God it's freshwater Greg."

"I'm more concerned about what you mean by out of luck"

"I'm not sure what I mean anymore. Give me awhile to think." Sara, careful with Lauren on her hip, was feeling around the cave, trying to get a feel for her surroundings…literally.

"I'm back. The rain's starting to get a bit heavier. Found some coconuts too." Catherine's silhouette showed up in the entrance of the cave, with odd pointed shadows sticking out.

"Thanks Catherine. Try to come back toward me. We have to find the farthest back point of the cave. It's not that big so it shouldn't be that hard."

Catherine's shoes could be heard clicking against the stony floor. She found Sara, by clonking Lauren on the head with one of the pieces of wood. The girl instantly began to cry, and Catherine spent the next two minutes trying to comfort her.

"Let's trade." Sara urged, reaching with her left hand to grasp the piles of wood Catherine had brought in. Lauren was passed yet again, like a hot potato, still screaming with shrieks that echoed through the grotto.

"Greg, were you ever a boy scout?" Sara called above the racket.

"One of the best." Greg made his way towards her voice.

"Then you must know how to start a fire."

"Indeed I do. Though I might be a bit rusty,"

"Just try all right?"

In the dark, Greg rubbed his hands, cracked his knuckles, then bent down in the shadow of black.

"I found a spot of dirt. Help me dig." He reached forward with his hands, digging down through the soil. Sara came up beside him, set down her load, and helped. Soon they had forged a six-inch deep hole, with a one-and-a-half-foot diameter. Catherine had made her way to the front of the cave, soothing Lauren and rubbing the injury to stop the pain. "We need some rocks, to contain it." Greg said loudly, but lowered his voice to normal when Lauren changed to soft whimpers instead.

"I think I felt some over that way."

"They need to be about medium sized."

Sara felt her way towards the right, reaching around for the rocks she had felt earlier, angrily brushing her curly hair out of her face in the mean time.

Greg waited for her patiently, when suddenly; he heard something go 'kerplunk' as if it had fallen into a pond of water, a soft gasp following.

"Sara?"

"I found the freshwater," she moaned. "…and the rocks…"

"Bring 'em over here. Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine."

A squelching noise reached Greg's ears, and Sara materialized by his side, small boulders held in her arms.

"What did you do?" Greg chuckled.

"I…er…stepped in the water and now my shoe is soaked again. But at least it's fresh, and inside the cave."

"Whatever."

Sara handed Greg half of the rocks and they firmly set them around the hole.

"Okay…now what?" Sara inquired.

"Gimme some tinder. That's bark shavings, dried grass, something small and easy to burn."

"I know what tinder is," Sara muttered haughtily.

Sara went back to where she had dumped her load earlier and dug around that would fit the requirements of tinder.

"I've got coconut husk."

"Perfect."

Sara handed the soft, fiber-like, but numerous coconut husk to Greg who heaped them inside the circle.

"Okay, from here, you get two sticks."

Greg held an open palm out and Sara placed two relatively dried out pieces of wood in it.

"Now watch the master…"

Sara raised an eyebrow, though it went unseen in the darkness. Greg cracked his knuckles once more, took the flatter stick Sara had given him, and placed it among the tinder. He then took the other stick, forced a small crack into the one among the coconut husk with it, and began to rub.

"Oh this is going to take a while…" Sara declared.

"Uh-uh-uh…Let the master _concentrate_. This takes exact precision."

Sara didn't respond. Instead, she stood up and (her right shoe squelching all the way) stepped over towards Catherine, where there was light, limited light due to the overhead blackening clouds and leaves of trees, but there was light all the same.

"How's Lauren doing?" Sara questioned, sitting down on the hard ground with Catherine and Matt, who was silent.

"It was just a booboo, right Lauren?" Catherine said. Lauren buried her head into Catherine's shoulder and sighed, a small goose egg forming on the right side of her forehead.

"I want my mommy!" she cried in a whining drone.

Catherine and Sara's jaws dropped and they stared at each other. How do you break it to a three-year-old that her mother and father weren't going to come back? That they were dead and gone forever?

"Hey, Lauren, guess what Sara's got!" Catherine gushed suddenly, as if struck by an idea.

"What?" Lauren sniveled, looking up at Catherine.

"Sara's got a dolly, do you want the dolly?"

Lauren sniffled, whether fake or real no one would know. "Yes…"

Sara dug into her jean pocket again and pulled out the McDonalds Barbie doll, handing its pink and blue-clothed body to Lauren, who took it eagerly.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

"You're very welcome."

Lauren squirmed out of Catherine's hold and over to Sara.

"Are you going to play house with me _now_?"

Sara laughed once, reaching out to Lauren and lifting the girl into her lap.

"But there's only one doll. I can't play house."

"I'm the mommy, and you're the daddy, and this is the baby!" Lauren waved the Barbie at Sara.

Catherine was sniggering quietly, a hand over her mouth to hide her smile, though her eyes clearly showed she was amused.

"Ummm…What if I don't want to be the daddy?" Sara pointed out.

"But you have to!" Lauren's face fell and the hand holding the Barbie drooped.

"What else could I be?"

Lauren thought for a moment.

"You could be the doggy."

Sara's mouth dropped and Catherine had heard enough. She let out a soft snort of mirth and leaned forward in her seat, doubled over with giggles.

"You know…I still haven't quite figured out how to play house. Why don't you go ask Catherine to play with you?" It was more of a command than a question.

Her shoulders drooped forward in a pout, but she grudgingly obeyed Sara's request. Catherine was eager to play with the little girl, and soon they were both laughing and squealing. Sara remained sitting where she was, watching as Catherine first talked in a deep voice like a man, and then broke out in barks as a puppy.

Every few minutes Sara would glance back at Greg to see if she could catch a glimpse of a spark but nothing had happened yet.

* * *

The rain increased. The sky darkened further. Thunder began to roll and Lauren and Catherine had halted their game. Matt was still sitting in the same spot as before, legs crossed, elbows resting on his knees and hands folded under his chin.

"Let there be light!" Greg suddenly shouted from the back of the cave. Sara and Catherine spun around to glimpse Greg quickly sorting through the mound of wood Catherine had brought in. A small flicker of light could be seen beyond Greg's head as he worked to keep it going. It grew steadily larger, until the entire cave was illuminated.

The cavern had a high ceiling, maybe seven or eight feet. The fire was in the very back of it, so the smoke could rise up and out of the cave.

The newly acquired light was located in a space of dirt that was close to a gently flowing spring, trickling from the far back ceiling and settling into the pond Sara had stepped in at the floor of the cave. It then ran downwards through a crack in the cave's floor. They could only assume it led to an underground reservoir of some sort.

"Need any help oh Mighty King of Fire?" Sara asked sarcastically.

"Nope. I've got it goin. Hey, do we have anything to eat? Drink maybe? I'm starving…"

Indeed, Sara and Catherine were hungry as well, and neither of them had any reason to doubt Lauren and Matt were too.

"I brought in some coconuts from outside…and that stream looks clear enough to drink." Catherine acknowledged. She and Sara stood up, Catherine carrying Lauren, and they walked to the back where Greg was seated, holding his hands out for the flame to warm.

"Before we eat, Greg, you need to leave."

"What?"

"Sara and I need to dry our clothes out."

"We do?"

"You do?"

"Just go find Ecklie or something. See how he's doing. Take Matt with you. Lauren needs to dry hers out too. Use a palm tree leaf or something to keep yourselves dry."

Greg stared flabbergasted over at Catherine, and then at Sara who shrugged.

"I am Fire King, and you kick me out of my castle?"

"Go on Greg," Catherine laughed, giving his shoulder a slight shove.

"Fine. I see I'm not appreciated among my female peers."

"You're appreciated Greg, but thankfully, privacy is too."

Greg wasn't listening. He walked straight over to Matt, who was still stoically sitting in the entrance of the cave. He said a few words to the boy, who responded with a nod, stood up, and followed Greg out of the women's sights.

"Don't worry Sara," Catherine reassured. "It'll just be like wearing a bikini. And I got rid of Greg for you…Not that he'd be seeing anything new after you two took that shower together." Catherine stared at Sara, whose eyes were widened, covered by one or two stray, messy, curls. "You…have worn a bikini, correct?"

"No, not really."

"You've lived your life in one-pieces?"

"Except when I was like…five…and my mom bought me this really cute tye-dye two-piece to go to the beach…yeah…"

"Sara…you really need to learn how to flaunt it."

"And this is coming from an ex-stripper." Sara said, showing her gap-toothed smile.

"Ex-_dancer_," Catherine corrected.

"My mistake,"

"Come on, we should get dry as soon as possible."

Catherine removed her navy blue t-shirt and set it against the cave wall above the fire.

"It'll smell like smoke, but it might cover up the fact that we're going to smell like B.O. the entire time we're here."

"Great…"

Catherine took of her jeans next, placing them next to her shirt, but Sara remained reluctant.

"Well come on Sara, what did you do in gym when you had to change in front of other girls?"

"Changed in a bathroom stall?"

Catherine's brightness faded as she removed her shoes and socks.

"I'm going to dry Lauren out. You can go ahead and catch cold or something like that…malaria…"

"Malaria is from mosquitoes." Sara stated blandly.

"Oh whatever," Catherine bent down to Lauren, who had been interestedly watching the conversation. She took off the girl's cotton white, blue, and purple striped turtleneck and placed it by her own clothes, then Lauren's jeans, socks, and then shoes, putting them in the same place.

With a large sigh, and Catherine's back turned, Sara unbuttoned the front of her blouse, and placed it on the rock-face. Then her jeans, and her shoes and socks, which were still quite damp.

"There, happy?" Sara muttered scathingly.

Catherine turned around from where she was speaking with Lauren and looked Sara in the eye, glancing over to where her clothes were lined up on the rock face.

"You need to comb your hair. It's a mess."

"Am I supposed to have a brush with me?"

"Use your fingers."

"Fine."

Sara angrily sat down cross-legged on the cold, hard, stone floor and began to comb through her curls with her long fingers. The fire's heat radiated out, drying out her damp, salt scraped skin. Catherine sat down on Sara's left, placing Lauren between the two women, and all three stared at the flames, allowing it to wash over them with the dry warmth that was familiar to the Las Vegans. Lauren yawned, then like dominoes, Sara followed suit and then Catherine.

For what felt like an hour, but was more than likely no more than fifteen minutes, they sat there, until—

"Hey, can I come back in please? I don't feel like getting struck by lightning and Matt's getting kinda scared."

"I'm not scared," Matt defended.

Sara and Catherine's eyes turned back to the cave's entrance, where Greg's arm was waving frantically. Not his face, just his un-bandaged arm waving at them, as if requesting entrance.

"Give us a second Greg," Catherine called. She stood up and walked over to the clothes. She picked up Sara's shirt first, rubbing her hand on it to see how wet it was. It wasn't.

"Here you go," she tossed it at Sara who put it on quickly. Next came Sara's jeans that were dried out as well. Catherine swiftly put her own clothes back on, and then dressed Lauren back up again.

"Come on in Greg," Catherine called.

Greg and Matt walked in, palm leaf over their heads.

"You know it's nice, dry, and cozy in here." Catherine said.

"I would have expected as much." Greg muttered, dropping the leaf on the ground and walking deeper inside, out from the dark blue sky outside.

"Have a seat Greg," Sara half-ordered, half-requested.

Greg did as asked, Matt crawling up behind him and resting his head on Greg's shoulder.

"Update on Ecklie's progress?" Catherine prompted, using her fingers to shake out her hair.

Greg cleared his throat, then reported. "He tried to make a tent of some sort with those poles and stuff, in the sand…didn't really work…and now with the storm and all he's pretty wet. It kinda all fell in on him so he's…well, under a leafy blanket, which isn't keeping him all that dry."

Silence filled the cave except for the crackling fire and the dribbling stream.

"Should we invite him in?" Sara offered.

"I already did." Catherine muttered.

"And…?"

"He decided to make his own 'shelter' anyway."

"Do you think he'll ever come in with us?"

"When ever he decides to take his head out of his—" Catherine stopped herself, noting that Matt and Lauren were listening. "Out of…his behind."

"I'm still hungry." Greg complained. He reached over to the pile of things Catherine had brought in, coming out with a coconut.

"Do you know karate too Greg? Or are you only long-distance swimming champion, Boy Scout, and King of Fire?"

"Well, I was actually going to ask you if you'd break this on a rock for me 'cause my arm isn't feeling too good right now."

"How so?" Sara asked, one of her eyebrows raising itself with slight concern.

"Burns. Probably need to find some other bandage. Anyway, yes, you need to break the coconut. Immediate needs first and a manly man _needs_ food."

Sara took the coconut from Greg's hand, put it on the ground, grabbed a rock from the side of the cave, and pounded away at it. Soon, she had a small hole in its shell.

"Here, pass it around and drink the milk and then we'll eat the flesh inside."

Greg took it, gulped down a sip, and smacked his lips in satisfaction. He then passed it to Catherine, who gave Lauren a drink first, and then Matt and finally herself. Sara drained off the last of the milk, and then smashed the shell completely. She handed the pieces out to the others and they ate their share silently.

Lightning crackled, lighting up the entrance of the cave, and thunder soon followed it.

"Do you think they'll find us soon?" Sara said quietly. She was expressing the question on everyone's mind, now that the overall shock had blown over and they were settled in.

"Not to put a damper on things…but I don't think they'll be able to come anywhere near us until this storm has blown over."

As if on cue, another great flash of lightning shone and more thunder rumbled.

Nobody said anything.

Then suddenly, from the opening of the cave, the sound of crunching vegetation, caused by something coming closer to them resonated in everyone's ears…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

The people inside the grotto turned and stared at the opening, breath held and hearts pounding with anxiety. All was quiet except for the bubbling spring in the corner, the crackling fire as it shot sparks into the air, and the drumming of rain. Matt edged closer to Greg, and Lauren cautiously crawled into Sara's lap. Even in the feeble mind of a three-year-old, she sensed the need to be silent.

Catherine glanced over at Sara, who met her gaze nervously. They shared a confirming stare than looked back at the entrance. Another crunch caused Sara to gulp noiselessly and squeeze Lauren's shoulder, whether to ease her own nerves or comfort the girl was unclear. Was it a wild animal, come to investigate the strange new island inhabitants? Or maybe something worse? What if it was something better? The sounds came closer, and a flash of lightning revealed a tall shadow slanting into the cave.

From his silent perch, Greg spotted a spare rock on the floor. He reached forward for it as quietly as possible and enclosed its smooth surface in his fingers. The others turned to observe him pick up the stone. Greg looked to Sara for silent permission, who met his gaze with a solid stare. The two then looked to Catherine for further approval. She nodded.

Greg raised the rock above his head with his left hand and threw. It soared out of the cave and made contact.

"Ow!"

Enormous sighs were released around the entire hollow.

"Ecklie," Catherine said aloud, her voice filled with what could be relief, or perhaps disbelief.

"Who threw that?" Ecklie's voice echoed like an annoying alarm clock.

Sara's lips were pursed, her eyes crackling with fury.

"I did!" Greg called.

"Sanders!"

More crunches, faster this time, and Ecklie materialized in the cave entrance.

"Glad you decided to join us Ecklie." Catherine said in a false voice.

"I'm only doing this because you have dry wood and I don't." Ecklie stepped further into the cavern. He was still wearing his black suit, though it was heavily dripping water. There was a bump on his head, bigger than Lauren's, and much more pronounced. "I would have gathered some of my own if I wasn't as busy constructing my lean-to."

"Is that what you call it?" Sara said. She hoisted Lauren closer to her. "Only, when Greg described it, it seemed kind of like you were having a bit of trouble keeping that up. That it was more of an…inefficient blanket?"

"Sidle, I'm warning you. You want to believe that dolt? He threw a rock at me!" Sara held her tongue. She wanted, so badly, to say that she would have done the same.

Ecklie walked even closer to them, his black suit now clearly ruined beyond repair. Tears, sand, and stains covered it. The water pouring from its edges splattered the ground around him and for some reason he reminded Sara of that dark, mysterious figure arriving in the night from those murder mysteries she had read as a child. Only this time it was a much more comical situation.

"Gimme your suit Ecklie." Catherine ordered. She stood up, gesturing for him to hand her the jacket.

Ecklie rolled his eyes as if thinking, _'I can't believe I'm listening to **you**_', wriggled out of the suit jacket, and placed it in Catherine's hand. She swept past him, back towards the cavern opening with the jacket in hand. Once at the entrance, she grasped its ends tightly and wrung it out.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ecklie cried. "That's expensive!"

"Oh, well too bad you decided to wear it in a plane crash." Catherine said, small grin on her face, walking back into the center of the cavern. She met Sara's eyes to see the woman also trying to conceal a grin.

Ecklie glared at her then reached out to the jacket.

"Uh-bup-bup…" Catherine slapped Ecklie's hand. "You aren't getting this back."

Ecklie's jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"What do you mean I'm not getting that back? Of course I am, it's mine!"

Catherine walked past him back towards the back of the cave. She placed it on the rock face above the fire, then turned back to Ecklie.

"Now your pants, that blouse, and that tie. Greg, you should probably get out of your shorts. Help Matt too. We don't want any of you guys getting sick."

Greg quietly muttered things in the background about how the women got privacy but the men didn't and etcetera as he pulled off his shorts. Ecklie however, wasn't budging.

"There's one in every gender." Catherine muttered, more to herself than anybody else, and placing her hands on her hips.

"One _what_?" Ecklie demanded.

"Stubborn person who won't strip to their underwear! What you don't seem to get, is that it's just like wearing a swimming suit. Sara was the same way."

Sara's lips curled with the concept of comparing herself to Ecklie. Ecklie glared at Catherine, his beady eyes hardening even more than usual. Then off came the tie, and then the blouse, and finally the pants, shoes, and waterlogged socks.

"There, was that so hard?" Catherine bent down to the soggy clothes then lugged them over to the new makeshift clothes-rack, laying them each out carefully upon the rock.

Ecklie's face was still tough, even as a light red flush began to creep along his cheekbones.

"Er…when am I going to get my clothes back? Or are those permanently the property of Catherine Willows now?"

"There's no need for a suit jacket on a desert island, except for maybe a blanket."

"You're making my hundred-dollar suit a pathetic _blanket_?"

Catherine walked around to the front of the fire and sat down by Sara, Lauren tipping herself into Catherine's lap.

"Hey, it's better than your 'lean-to'."

Ecklie's face twisted into a sarcastic smile, as if he just might possibly find her funny. But it then faded and he pursed his lips. The other three adults turned back to activities. Matt was still sitting quietly by Greg, both of them in their underwear. Catherine cooed to Lauren, whose brown eyes were beginning to droop. Sara stared ahead at the fire, apparently entranced.

Ecklie, finally realizing that attention was no longer on him, strode forward towards the cluster of people huddled by the fire. Then his cold eyes fell on the pile of coconuts and wood Catherine had brought in earlier that day.

"Hey…uhhh…can I have one of those coconuts?" he asked.

The others seemed taken aback slightly, for none could recall a time they had heard Ecklie ask for permission from any of them to do something. Catherine and Sara looked at each other, and Sara shrugged. After the initial shock had settled, Greg stopped paying attention and instead stared at the fire, leaving Catherine to address the matter.

"Umm…You can have _some_."

"Why some?"

"Because you don't need to eat an entire coconut."

"An entire-" he sputtered, "an entire coconut? That's barely anything!"

"Only some." Catherine said, with a threatening finality in her voice, handing the drowsy Lauren back to Sara, reaching forward for one of the coconuts, and beginning to open it with a rock, nicking away at its shell. A hole was formed and Catherine drank from it.

"Hey!" Ecklie cried as Catherine gave some to Lauren, and then handed it to Sara who drank and passed it on.

"What?" Catherine said innocently.

"That's mine!"

"Didn't you ever learn to share?" Sara said cynically as Matt drank from the shell and finally Greg.

Ecklie didn't say anything as Greg passed the nearly empty coconut to him. He drank the last of it then gave it back to Catherine, as if expecting her to serve it. She placed it on the ground then meticulously smashed at it with a rock until it cracked in half. Ecklie bent down, snatched up one of the halves, sat down, and began to scoop out of the flesh of the coconut eagerly, shoveling it into his mouth. The others stared at him, Lauren being the first to express what everyone was thinking.

"Ooh...He's hungry," she said.

Catherine chuckled at Lauren's blunt observation then scooped out the other half of the nut, feeding it to the two kids. Ecklie finished eating soon and tossed the empty half of the nutshell aside. Catherine glared at him, her stern face clearly indicating that there would be no littering in the cave, and to hand her the empty shell. Ecklie did so, though he made sure to express his irritability in the process.

"We should save the half coconuts for cups or something so we're not living on coconut milk the whole time we're here." Catherine pointed out, examining the shell as if she were still back home at the lab, investigating a piece of evidence. She edged over to the spring without standing and dipped the shell into it, tilting it back so it would gather water. She took a giant sip, allowing the liquid to hydrate her even better than the milk. Then Catherine refilled it to the brim and gave it to Lauren.

Sara had gotten the gist and, setting Lauren down on the ground, grabbed the second half, filled it with water, drank from it, and then passed it along. Ecklie was again last to get his share, though he drank the water greedily.

"All right…Ecklie, we have a job for you."

Sara's face snapped to Catherine, an eyebrow raised as if saying, '_You're trusting **him**?_' Lauren edged into Sara's lap again, one hand sticky with coconut and the other still gripping the Barbie doll after all this time.

"And what could that possibly be?" he scoffed.

Catherine was quick to answer. "Before we give you your clothes back, you need to go outside and grab a bunch of palm leaves. A _bunch_. We've got to set up some beds. They'll be wet, but they'll be beds."

"Why do _I_ have to go out there?" he complained.

"Because Sara and I can't go out there since we have clothes on. Greg has already done enough by making the fire and Matt isn't tall enough to reach any of those leaves. Besides, he's a kid."

Ecklie seemed to see Catherine's point, even if everyone knew he wouldn't admit it. He turned on his bare heel and stormed out of the cavern and into the pouring rain. Another flash of electricity lit up the surroundings, followed by a giant drum-roll that left after a few seconds, leaving them with the sound of pitter-pattering rain.

"Here you go Greg," Catherine began, interrupting the relative silence by standing and walking over to the clothes. She tossed Greg his shorts and sandals, as well as Matt's t-shirt, jeans, socks, and shoes. Greg took them, slipped his own limited wardrobe on and then re-dressed Matt.

Catherine sat back down and they all stared ahead for a few minutes. She leaned her head on her palm, pulling her knees up to her chest and leaning on them. Lauren looked exhausted again, and was leaning back in Sara's arms, eyes half-closed, and relaxed. Sara was running her fingers through Lauren's brown curls, perhaps to unwind herself or lull the girl to sleep.

Greg had sat down again, leaning back on his two hands on the right of the fire, Matt seated at his right, still unspeaking. Catherine was beginning to worry about that little boy. The shock of losing both your parents at once and then swimming to an island with complete strangers couldn't possibly be easy.

Many minutes passed, thunder still rolling, all the cave's inhabitants seated calmly, before Ecklie returned. They turned to see him. His arms were loaded with dripping vegetation. They were so numerous they hid his face from view as he stumbled in. Nearly tripping on a rock, Ecklie released the leaves, causing them to tumble to the ground.

"Bring them over near the fire." Catherine ordered in a half-whisper, for Lauren had fallen asleep in Sara's arms.

Ecklie listened unenthusiastically, hefting the leaves back into his arms and moving closer to them. Catherine took a handful of them then arranged them near the fire, not close enough to burn, but close enough to dry out. Ecklie stood there, holding the rest of the foliage tightly.

"Gimme those…" Catherine took them from him and gestured over at Greg and Matt to stand up. They did so, and Sara too began to stand, but Catherine waved at her. "We don't want to wake up Lauren." She laid out the leaves where Greg and Matt had sat. Then, she shifted the leaves into her left arm and pulled Ecklie's clothes (excluding the suit jacket) off the wall.

"You can put your clothes back on now…" Catherine muttered absently, laying out more leaves. Ecklie grumbled quietly about the clothes smelling like smoke, but put them on anyway. When Catherine had finished filling up as much drying space was possible with the leaves Ecklie had brought in, there were still a few left, so she set them off to the side to dry later if they needed them.

After that, she sat down next to Sara with a heavy sigh, turning her head and watching Sara absently comfort the little girl in her sleep. Greg sat too, and Matt followed suit. Ecklie, instead, acted like a hermit and headed out to the front of the cave, to sit alone.

And they waited.

* * *

**A/N: I wanted to get this one out to you guys because it's been awhile. Ecklie's being SUCH a pain, but it's so fun to write him. I need a small suggestion, if you want to lend a hand. Tell me something Ecklie would do, that would send one of the adults out of the cave in a frustrated rage. (I'm not going to tell you who storms outthough) I already have an idea for something he could do that would annoy me at least. Any ideas? Reviews are still appreciated! (Geez, why wouldn't they be?)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Sara lay uncomfortably on the ground, nothing separating her from the cold stone except a layer of palm fronds. The thunderstorm outside was continuing in a relentless onslaught of wind, rain, and electricity. Her 'bed' was situated alongside the wall opposite the spring, but near the fire. At present, Sara was staring at the rock wall, trying to escape from the light and sink into sleep, something that would get her away from the mayhem of the past 48 hours.

Ecklie had set up his bed near the entrance of the cave, and was snoring loudly. Another thing preventing Sara from falling asleep. Catherine was on the wall with the spring, in the center of the cave, with Lauren and Matt asleep on Sara's side. Greg was sleeping right next to the spring.

Despite the fact that Sara was attempting to sleep, her eyes were open and staring at the blank rock wall her body faced. The fire warmed her back, the trickling stream sounding quietly in her ears. Any normal person would have fallen asleep to the comforting features of the temporary Pacific Island resort, but Sara had too much on her mind. Ecklie's loud, obnoxious snores, obviously being in the top ten.

And then of course, there was the fact that she was hungry. Sure, she'd had two drinks of coconut milk as well as a piece of the actual nut to eat, but her stomach was already beginning to growl again. She prayed the rain would let up soon so she could go out to find something a bit more satisfactory than coconuts. But at the rate this thunder was pounding, the chances were slim.

She closed her eyes in the slight chance she would drift off. She held them shut, thinking of nothing, but the blackness was almost frightening. Her eyes fluttered open against her will and she stared ahead once more. The light of the fire was flickering against the rock, and her shadow was outlined along it. Sara's left arm was bent underneath her head, serving as a makeshift pillow, but it was beginning to fall asleep.

She moved it slightly and laid her head on the leaves instead, then closed her eyes again. The crackling fire sounded, the blackness of her sight morphing into something more than just darkness, colors of red, orange, and yellow, and a flare up of flame filled it as well. The plane had exploded, and Greg shouted out in pain. She jumped and her eyes shot open. Had she drifted off to sleep? Was it a dream or a memory? Both, maybe. The dread she had felt for the lives of the people on the burning plane filled her and she shivered, though she wasn't the slightest bit cold.

And she remembered the sorrow when they had found Lauren and Matt and discovering that their parents were gone, leaving the two kids with a group of complete strangers. Sara easily recalled what it was like. Lauren obviously wasn't all that affected, except for those times when she cried for one of her parents, but Matt…Matt was a different story, and Sara knew something was bothering him. Matt hardly said a word, and Sara knew his psychological well-being had been, or was being, affected.

A single tear ran down her cheek and she hastily wiped it away, allowing a lock of curly hair to fall into her face. She brushed it away. Damnit, Sara Sidle was crying and her hair was curly. She sighed and closed her eyes again. There were no sounds except for the random thunder roll as well as the stream and fire. Her eyes opened again. No other sounds? Ecklie had stopped snoring. He was awake.

Sara lay as still as possible, her breathing quickening despite her mental shouts at it to steady out. She tried to look and see what the man was doing without moving, but saw nothing. Seconds of tense moments passed, and then minutes of tense seconds went along. Sara's mind seemed to be stuck in a mental tug-o-war. Should she investigate? The answer was a hard-pronounced yes. She was a CSI. She was supposed to investigate. But then again, it could very easily be nothing.

Sara propped herself up on her left hand, the numbness in it fading slowly. She glanced around the cave at the other occupants; Greg, Catherine, Lauren, and Matt were all heaving up and down slowly with their breaths. Lauren and Matt shared a pile of leaves and Ecklie's suit jacket. Sara's eyes moved to the end of the cave where Ecklie was supposed to be. Nothing but his bed remained.

_'Great…'_ Sara thought. She stood up as quietly as possible, straightened out her clothes, and walked cautiously over to Ecklie's deserted leaves. The pouring rain outside formed a sheet of wet Sara wasn't very interested in having to walk through it to go find him. She stood at the edge of the cave and gazed out, folding her arms against her chest as a cool blow of wind swept rain into her face. Her curls danced around her face, blowing backwards, then sideways, and then backwards again.

Should she stand here and wait for him to get back from wherever he had gone off to? A bolt of lightening could just be made out past the leaves. Nope…as much as she hated to admit it, she probably should go out to make sure he hadn't been struck by lightning, no matter how much of a tantalizing prospect that was…

Sara picked up one of Ecklie's palm leaves from the floor and pulled it over her head to keep her dry. It probably wouldn't work all that well; it didn't even cover the length of her head. Taking in a deep breath and cursing herself for caring too much about humans, even Ecklie, she stepped through the sheet of water. The liquid pounded on her 'umbrella', resounding in her ears and pummeling her head.

Squinting through the rain, Sara looked around for Ecklie. Already she was soaked with the rain, and she threw the useless palm leaf aside, leaving her hands free. She continued to squint, looking at the mud searching for any footprints he might have left. She found some, though they were filled with water and only recognizable as holes going in a straight line.

Sara tucked her hair behind her ears in a futile gesture, because the wind instantly blew it around again. She followed the tracks, doing her best not to step in the mud as she walked. It followed a relatively worn down dirt path. '_Probably from an animal…maybe it ate him…'_ Sara thought with a slight smirk, taking a step forward. When her foot met the slippery ground, she slid on a hidden rock and shot her hands out to the trunk of a nearby tree to keep from slipping. She gasped, as her hands slid down the rough bark scraping her skin.

She swore angrily and pulled herself back to a proper standing position before walking forward. She looked back towards the cavern, and could still barely make out its location from the flickering light of the fire. She'd turn back when it was out of sight.

She took another cautious step forward, arms out in case fate decided to make her fall again.

"Ecklie!" Sara cried, though her words were lost amongst an explosion of thunder. She eased herself down a slope, sliding slightly on the way. "Ecklie!" Nothing. Sara puffed out her cheeks and cursed herself again for even bothering to come out in the first place. She made to turn around and jog back to the cave, her clothes soaked almost as badly as when she had been swimming from sharks, but a sudden movement caught by the corner of her eye kept her feet planted.

"Ecklie?"

She took a wary step forward, towards a wall of bushes, she could have sworn she had seen move. And indeed, they moved again, and Sara held her breath for not more than a split-second before–

"Ahh!" Ecklie screeched, jumping backwards as he walked out of the bushes, zipping up his fly.

Sara cussed and hopped back with a start, foolishly throwing caution to the wind for sake of instinct, and dropping to the ground.

"What the _hell?_" Ecklie yelled. "Can't a man take a leak in private?"

"Well how was _I _supposed to know you were taking a piss? It's not like you told anybody where you were going!" Sara shouted angrily. She pushed herself off the ground, groaning with the fear of having to check the butt of her pants. She knew they were covered in mud, just as her hands were.

"Well I wasn't going to wake anybody up! What was I supposed to say, I gotta go pee?"

"_I _wasn't asleep!"

"You sure as hell looked like you were!" Ecklie glared at her in the darkness.

Sara said nothing to that, and instead grabbed a fern and wiped her hands on it, getting the mud off as best she could.

"You didn't _watch_ did you?" Ecklie said after a moment, his voice slightly calmer.

"Oh God, no…" Sara said quickly. "I'm going to go back to the cave, see if I can clean off my ass before Catherine or Greg wake up."

"Am I still welcome?" Ecklie asked, his tone seeping with sarcasm. It was as if he wanted to put Sara through her paces of misery even though he knew the answer would be yes.

"Yes…" Sara said through gritted teeth, her back and muddy behind towards him as she walked up the slope. She could almost feel him smirk behind her as she eased herself up the slippery hill.

Sara looked a mess. Her hair was plastered onto her face, the curls flattened, except for random frizzy locks. Her arms were wind-whipped and her hands were raw from gripping the tree trunk. Her pants were covered in muck as well as the rest of her clothes. Sara's stomach rumbled in rhythm with a roll of thunder as she continued making her way up the hill.

Then a flash of lightning illuminated the foliage around Sara and Ecklie, who trailed behind. Several bush-like trees looked to be carrying fruit, ten or eleven foot trees with overlapping bark and thick trunks. Each leaf separated into three sections, which in turn divided up into numerous prongs.

Sara could have sworn she had seen fruit near their trunks, but couldn't see through the pouring rain and darkness. Squinting, she reached over and grabbed onto a different plant to keep from falling backwards down the hill. She would have to wait for another lightning strike before she could–

And there it was. The lightning flashed, lighting up her surroundings and revealing the plants again. Clustered around the base of the leaves were several good-sized fruits, yellow with faded orange near the top. Her stomach clenched painfully and Sara trudged towards the fruit, thoughts of a full stomach driving her forward.

"What are you doing?" Ecklie called from behind her. She disregarded him and reached for where she last remembered seeing the outline of fruit. Lightning lit up the plant in front of her and she sighed in relief, or perhaps the anticipation of a feast ahead. Reaching out, she grabbed the fruit from its stem and tugged. It was a good five or ten pounds worth of fruit, and she struggled to carry it and walk up the slope at the same time.

"Hey, answer me!" Ecklie commanded, trying to jog up to her side as she hoisted herself up by a hanging vine, slippery fruit tucked under her arm. Light from the cavern's fire showed they were at the top of the hill.

"I found something to eat." Sara muttered hurriedly, planting her feet firmly on un-sloped ground and walking through the mud. She didn't care if she got anymore dirty than she already was. She reached the cave entrance, rain still pouring from it in a sheet of water, running away from them down a steeper hill in a stream.

"Well that's obvious…" Ecklie said, stepping up beside her. "Are you going to go in or not?"

Sara wasn't listening to him. She thought she could hear some slight sniffling amongst the waterfall sound of tumbling water. With a deep breath, she stepped through the blanket of water, though the wetness didn't affect her since she was already soaked.

"Finally! I've been waiting for you for forever! Where've you been?"

It was Catherine, sitting upright on her pile of leaves, Lauren held tightly in her arms, sniffing. As soon as the girl spotted Sara, she wailed and held her arms out.

"What happened?" Sara walked up to Catherine, placed the fruit down on Catherine's bed, and lifted Lauren into her arms. The girl buried her face into Sara's wet shoulder and cried.

"She woke up and cried for her dad. When she realized that he wasn't here, she started crying for you."

Sara seemed slightly surprised, and looked into Lauren's curly mass of hair.

"Are you sure she was calling for me?"

"Is your name Sawah?" Catherine asked mockingly. The woman stood up and straightened out her shirt and hair. Somehow, her hair appeared almost untouched by the disaster of crashing into the middle of nowhere. Other than a few stray snarls, it looked perfectly normal.

"So…" Catherine began again. "You were…where exactly?"

"Looking for Ecklie."

"Did you find him?"

As an answer to Catherine's question, Ecklie stumbled into the cave, shaking his head of the newly acquired wetness and shaking out his soaked limbs.

"Oh…"

Sara made an annoyed face as she ran her hand through Lauren's hair.

"I found some food too. Papaya, I think." Sara added as Ecklie bothered himself with the task of wringing out his clothes.

"Yeah...It's good-sized. That'll actually probably feed us enough to numb the hunger pains…I'm starving…"

Catherine bent down to the papaya where Sara had placed it, and examined it. While she did that, Sara glanced around the cave at the other two occupants. Greg was still sleeping; through the thunder and rain, he was still sleeping. Matt was awake however, and was seated by the fire again, Ecklie's jacket wrapped around his shoulders, his eyes empty of emotion.

Sara's eyes lingered on him for a moment before she turned back to Catherine, who still seemed to be struggling with how to get the papaya into pieces.

"Okay then…umm…How're we going to do this?" Catherine asked aloud.

"I suppose we could all just take bites instead of cutting it open."

"Yeah, well they have seeds, don't they?"

Sara shrugged. It was more of a '_So?_' than an '_I don't know_' shrug.

"You know, Lauren I'm getting you all wet." Sara said as Catherine turned back to staring at the papaya. "All that stripping for nothing, huh?" Catherine's lips moved up into a grin, though her eyes never moved.

Sara smiled too, then gripped Lauren under the armpits and began to set her back on the ground.

"No! No! No!" Lauren screeched, her cries echoing through the cave.

"Okay, okay, I won't put you down!" Sara hushed, pulling Lauren back to her shoulder. "You can catch cold with me then…"

Catherine was still looking for a way to eat Sara's prize, when Ecklie decided it was his turn to speak.

"Can't you think of something to do with that thing? I'm starving!"

"It's harder than it looks," Catherine defended. "Besides…if anyone's going to eat it might as well be one of the kids."

"They don't need it! They've had more coconut than anybody!"

Catherine and Sara glared at Ecklie, who seemed to shrink slightly into the shadows.

"The kids eat first." Catherine said, articulating every word sternly.

Ecklie said nothing.

"I'm hungry." Lauren whispered quietly, her voice slightly shaky.

Catherine smirked at Ecklie, her meaning clear. '_Then it's settled…'_

"Here Lauren, go to Catherine for a moment." Sara ordered softly,

"No!" she whined, her grip tightening.

"It'll just be for a moment. She's going to get you something to eat."

Lauren sniffed. Then she let go.

Sara gently eased Lauren to the floor, where the girl stepped right on over to Catherine, sitting in her lap and looking up at her expectantly. Catherine held the papaya up and took one bite, to break through the tough skin so Lauren could eat some of the softer flesh. It tasted sort of like a cantaloupe with a slight tangy zing.

"I'm gonna go see if Matt wants any." Catherine said quietly, setting Lauren on the leaves and swallowing her bite of papaya.

"All right," Sara said. She took the heavy fruit from Catherine and leaned against the cave wall, not wanting to cover Catherine's leaves with the mud caking her butt.

Catherine sauntered over to Matt and sat down quietly by the boy's side. Her shoes squeaked softly as she walked, and Matt's eyes turned to her for a split-second, before drifting back to the blazing flame.

"Hey," Catherine said.

"Hi…" Matt answered, but it was so quiet it was almost like a squeak.

"You hungry?" Catherine asked.

Matt shook his head, pulling the jacket closer to him.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

Catherine stared at him for a few moments, then at the fire, watching it crackle and twist. She reached over to the pile of materials from earlier that day and threw in a couple pieces of dried wood.

"Are you all right?" she asked, quietly, calmly. She wanted him to respond, not be so upfront that he curled into his shell, never to come out.

Matt hesitated, or more didn't make any signs of noticing she had spoken to him. Then, slowly, he shook his head no.

"Do you…wanna talk?"

Another no.

She didn't want to press the matter, only reaching out to Matt and gently rubbing his back.

"It's gonna be okay, all right?" Catherine laid her head on her knees and ran her fingers across his hair. "Everything's going to be just fine…"

Without a word, Matt scooted right up to Catherine's side, causing her to stop stroking him. The next second, he had reached both of his arms around Catherine's waist and hugged her tightly.

Catherine couldn't help but smile.

* * *

Catherine, Sara, Matt, and Lauren sat in silence on or around Catherine's bed. Sara had banished herself to the rock floor, for the sake of keeping her filthy pants off Catherine's bed. The papaya had made its way around the group, and to Ecklie who now sat on a boulder near the front of the cave. The fruit was only about half eaten, the peppered-black seeds of the papaya dotting a hollow in its center, numerous bite marks around its top, piercing into the yellow flesh. The rest of it was left for Greg to take his fair share once he had woken up.

Lauren sat half-awake in Sara's lap. Matt leaned against Catherine who was half-asleep, resting her head against the rock wall, eyes closed.

"Catherine…" Sara said quietly, "I'm going to head back to sleep, all right? Do you want me to put Matt to bed for you?"

Catherine's shoulders drooped and she lifted her head up off the rock wall. She yawned widely then responded, "Matt can go to sleep himself, right?" She sent Matt over to the bed he and his sister shared. Sara stood and followed him, setting Lauren down to rest next to Matt. The big brother shared Ecklie's jacket with his sister and closed his eyes. Lauren made no complaints about being put to sleep, so Sara walked quietly away to her pile of leaves.

With her stomach full and her back turned to the fire, Sara fell asleep promptly.

* * *

Catherine awakened with a start, to sounds of barely controlled shouts.

"You _ate _it?"

"I was hungry!"

"You're such an animal! That was supposed to be for Greg!"

"I know, but _he _wasn't going to eat it! He was busy sleeping!"

"For when he woke up!"

Catherine's eyes shot open and she pushed herself off her leaves. Sara and Ecklie were having a shouting match inside the cave, both of them standing face-off style. Rubbing her eyes, Catherine intervened groggily.

"_What_ is going on?"

"Ecklie decided to eat the rest of the papaya." Sara spat.

"Ecklie!"

"I _told _you I was hungry! Besides, it's not as if he's going to be missing it! And what'll he need to eat; he's a scrawny lab tech!"

"_Was_ a lab tech." Sara corrected. Her hair was standing on end, the mud on her jeans caked. "He works in the field now."

"Not very adeptly."

"He's doing just fine."

Ecklie glared at Sara, who stood very tense, poised to attack if her anger turned to that.

"Ecklie, you owe all of us food. Go make yourself useful." Catherine ordered.

"No." he said promptly. "I outrank you at the lab. There's no reason I should have to listen to you here."

Catherine stared at him, mouth agape.

"What's going on?"

Greg was awake.

"Absolutely _nothing_." Ecklie said sardonically. "_Nothing _at all."

Sara glared, Catherine stared, and Greg looked completely lost.

"Do you really want to know Greg?" Sara asked.

"If it would help me find out why you're yelling when two little kids are sleeping, yeah."

"Ecklie decided to eat your food. And everyone else's seconds."

Ecklie scoffed and rolled his eyes, turning on his heal and strolling to the front of the cave.

"Oh. Well, I didn't want any more coconut anyway. Not much of a fan."

"It wasn't coconut he ate. He ate the papaya I found and brought back."

Greg shook his right arm and stood up. His hair was tousled and his eyes glazed.

"Well in that case I guess I can be mad."

"Yeah, you can go ahead and be mad now Greg."

"One thing you left out, _Sidle_, is how you _found _it in the first place. Did that detail slip your mind?"

Sara gritted her teeth and Catherine walked over to Lauren and Matt. Lauren had woken up and was staring wide-eyed at the quarrelling adults. Catherine put a comforting arm around her shoulder, whispering in her ear and trying to get her back to sleep.

"Sidle must have forgotten to tell you how she found it…" Ecklie continued, evil lacing his words. "She's the newest peeping tom of Polynesia. She followed me out of the cave when I was on my way to take a piss. She's quite the little pervert."

WHAM!

Sara slapped Ecklie as hard as she could in the back of his head causing him to cry out in pain. Sara stood above him, her nostrils flaring in indignation, her eyes wide and crackling, her chest heaving up and down.

Then she stormed through the sheet of rain, out into the darkness.

* * *

**A/N: I just looked at how many hits I have...1080. Can you believe that? 1080! Anyway...all of your reviews are appreciated very very much. :) All of your ideas were excellent and I combined a few of them with what I had originally planned and I'm very satisfied with the outcome. My plot is going very smoothly, at least in my opinion. I don't need the readers help for the next chapter...BUT you always help out when you review because it makes my reason for writing that much better. :D Happy reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry sorry, sorry, SORRY! I'm so sorry this took so long to get out! It's just that I got a new computer and we couldn't find the Microsoft Word program. While that wasn't working I wrote this down in a notebook which I then lost. But the important thing is it's here now, right? Please! Please! Please review and smack my hand with a ruler in the process please.** **

* * *

**

**Chapter Seven**

A thick silence engulfed them after Sara stormed away. Ecklie stood rubbing the side of his head, his eyes staring out of the cave opening. Greg stood with his hands in his shorts' pockets.

Catherine wanted deeply to say that Ecklie deserved it, but knew that it was probably a bad thing to say at the moment, so she preoccupied herself with Lauren and Matt, hoping to get them back to sleep.

"I think we can all agree that was completely uncalled for." Ecklie said after a few minutes of standing dumbstruck.

Catherine and Greg said nothing.

"I think this crash has everybody in a bad mood." Ecklie stated.

Silence.

"Well, isn't anyone going to say something?" he snapped. He spun around to everyone else.

Greg raised his hand like a schoolboy would to ask permission to speak.

"I say we should go find Sara. There's no telling what could happen on this island."

"You're on your own with that one Sanders." Ecklie walked over to his right, sat down on his pile of leaves, and he breathed out a sigh. For the first time Catherine had ever seen, Ecklie actually looked worn and vulnerable. The coldness in his eyes was slowly ebbing away, replaced by hollowness and his shoulders sagged. Catherine tore her eyes away from Ecklie as a couple faint pangs of pity hit and she turned to Greg.

"Give her a few minutes to calm down, all right? She doesn't really act well under stress."

"What if something happens?" Greg peered anxiously out of the cave through the rain.

"We'll give her ten minutes. If she's not back in ten minutes, we'll go find her."

Sara stomped through the sopping wet vegetation, down the slope she had first used to get to the cave. She was traveling blindly through the dark, nothing but the extreme need to get as far away from Ecklie as possible pushing her forward. Her feet met sand; she walked for a few more steps before stopping and taking deep breaths. She needed to get her head straight, and stomping away in a huff wasn't going to help.

Okay…so the plane had crashed…they had picked up two little kids and swam to the island. Ecklie continued to be an ass towards everybody…a greedy one at that. She had gotten fed up and slapped him. No big deal. She had been completely justified, right? He had provoked her. Besides, they're on an island in the middle of nowhere. What was he going to do about it?

Sara didn't even feel the rain soaking her skin as she stepped slowly through the sand. Her hair was flat against her face once more, wet and dripping. Lightning showed where she was, heading straight for the violently tumbling waves at the shore. She wasn't sure what drove her towards them, but she kept walking. Maybe she was planning subconsciously to drown herself? Or maybe not. Maybe she wanted the shark to come up and eat her.

The water rushed up around her ankles, soaking her shoes. She was just at the very, very edge of the water. They crashed down yards away from her and then swirled up towards her ankles, pulling greedily at her feet, trying to draw her in.

Sara took additional deep, calming breaths. It was too dark to do something like find shells and rocks to throw far into the waves. She couldn't put her problems with the rock and then get them as far away as possible. Besides, just like her problems, the rock would come tumbling back with the waves of time. She'd need a lot of rocks before she would be 'free of problems' and she couldn't see even one.

Huffing, she reached up to her sea-sprayed face, brushing away some stray curls. The wind was blowing her hair everywhere, whistling in her ears, turning the flecks of saltwater flying in the air into daggers.

Sara turned to her left, walking slowly along the very outermost part of the shoreline, keeping her distance from the threatening waves and the possibilities of undertow. She vaguely wondered if the shark was still out there, swimming in the gently churning deep ocean water while the surface whipped violently.

Her heart rate, which had been pounding after she had smacked Ecklie, had slowed within a couple of minutes of blind walking. Her breathing had eased after her walk and she felt almost ready to go back to the cave.

With a giant breath, released with sigh, Sara turned on her heel, heading for where she thought the cave sat. A flash of lightning showed her to be heading in the right direction, as well as a soft flicker of flame through the wall of trees. Sara climbed up the embankment, sliding on mud, reaching around for firmly rooted plants to help her hold her ground.

She got to the top of the slope and looked around. She could go left and get Greg a new papaya to eat since he was probably starving and just not admitting it or she could go with the much less appealing prospect of going to the right into the cave where Ecklie was no doubt sitting.

Sara decided instantly to go to the bush to fetch another fruit. She slid down the muddy slope, leaning back to avoid falling face first into the muck. Halfway down she latched onto a palm tree and pulled herself off the animal trail. She wasn't sure what kind of animal walked that path, but she couldn't come up with any Polynesian predators that would really cause problems for them other than poisonous things like snakes and spiders.

More flashes of light showed her where she was and she reached forward to the papaya tree. Tugging and twisting, she attempted to heave the papaya off its stem. But then a rustling in the leaves to her left caused her to freeze. She blew some rainwater out of her mouth and tried to steady her breath. Maybe she was hearing things. The leaves shuddered and all thoughts of hearing things left her thoughts, unless she was seeing things as well.

Sara let the only half-free papaya fall back into place and moved towards a tree slowly, when a sudden loud, high-pitched squeal erupted from the leaves and a pig of some sort burst out of the plants, charging straight for her.

"How long has it been Catherine?" Greg asked quietly, his bare back against the cool wall of the cave, his head bent backwards and his bandaged arm resting in his lap.

"How should I know? I don't have a watch!"

"Well you were the one who suggested a time limit."

"You know as well as I do that if we went to look for her right away she'd bite our heads off."

"She's a vegetarian."

"I didn't say she'd eat us."

Greg smirked and pulled his head away from the rock and looked at Catherine. She was sitting cross-legged next to the two kids who were dozing quietly, covered with Ecklie's jacket. Ecklie too was sleeping, or at least pretending to be asleep. He was snoring lightly and Greg thought vaguely that it might be fun to chuck his sandal at him…after all he did owe him dinner.

"What are _you_ smirking at?" Catherine asked suddenly.

"Hmm? Oh…I was just thinking how fun it'd be right now to chuck another rock at Ecklie's head…"

Catherine's face scrunched up with poorly suppressed laughter.

"I think he deserves another bump right about now." Catherine agreed.

"That was a pretty stupid thing to say about Sara. Especially with everybody so tense."

Catherine agreed with a nod, when a sudden loud squeal reached their ears.

"What was that?" Greg asked, his eyes wide.

Catherine's mouth was open and she shut it with an '_I have no idea' _look.

Greg and Catherine stared at each other for a few moments before a scream followed the squeal. They both sprang to their feet and headed out into the downpour, squinting around in the rain.

"I _told _you something bad could happen! There's no telling in this place!"

"Shut up and look for her, Greg!" Catherine snapped, brushing her hair out of her face.

Greg turned and followed orders. "Sara!" he yelled. "Saaa-raaa!"

"Sara!" Catherine mimicked Greg, cupping her hands to her mouth and calling.

"What the hell is going on?"

Ecklie showed up in the cave entryway, looking ornery. "You think you can leave me in here alone with those two kids?"

"They're sleeping." Catherine said, quieting her voice to just above normal. Water was pouring down her and she wiped her face.

"Well they won't be for long if you keep yelling!"

"Look, something might be wrong with Sara. We're going to go find her." Greg interrupted before Catherine could cut in. She looked slightly annoyed, but said nothing. Ecklie huffed then turned back into the cave.

"Sara!" Greg called again.

Then they heard something undistinguishable, very faint, from a distance away.

"Over here…" Greg treaded through the muck towards where the call had come from. "Sara?"

"_Up here…_" It was very faint, nearly lost in a giant tumult of thunder.

"Sara? Are you all right?" Greg followed the voice and looked around. He saw nobody. Catherine came up beside him. They were at the very edge of a slope, looking down a muddy knoll lined by trees.

"_Up here!_"

Greg and Catherine looked up and saw nothing in the blackness.

"_No, come closer and look up!_"

They did as they were told, slipping and sliding on the hill and coming to a stop halfway down.

"Sara? Where—" were the only words he could get out before Sara's voice shouted, "Look out for the pig!"

Greg and Catherine raised their eyebrows in confusion when suddenly a blur of something of mid-thigh height sprang from behind a tree and charged straight past Catherine and Greg, sending them backwards into the mud, cursing all the way. The backside of the pig disappeared behind a couple of large ferns, but they could here it running the entire way, squealing up a storm.

"What the hellwas that all about?" Greg gasped, wincing as he picked his bandaged arm off the ground, waving it lightly to rid it of mud. Catherine was back on her feet, wiping her hands on a leaf and groaning at the sight of a mud-covered butt. Now she, Greg, and Sara would all have matching butts. How wonderful.

"It's a wild boar, I think." said Sara from above somewhere.

"Well it's crazy. You sure it doesn't have rabies?" Greg said, standing up, then slipping and falling on his behind again. Catherine walked over towards his outline, thanks to her finally adjusted eyes and picked him up off the slippery ground.

"Of course it doesn't have rabies." Sara said, still unseen. "But it's crazy, I'll give you that much. It took a gash out of my leg…and to think I became a vegetarian because of a pig. He_ should_ be thankful."

"Sara, where are you? You planning on coming down from wherever you are?" Catherine called.

Some rustlings came from a tree nearby and Sara appeared next to it.

"F'in pig," she muttered, limping towards Catherine and Greg.

"That was you who screamed, right?" Catherine said, eyeing Sara's left leg.

Sara looked quizzically ahead for a moment before saying, "Oh…I suppose I did scream…Where's Ecklie?" Her voice took on a different tone, an angrier tone when she spoke of Ecklie.

"Back in the cave."

"Alone?"

"With Lauren and Matt, but other than that, yeah alone."

Sara huffed then moved over to a bush, tugging at a piece of yellowish-orange fruit.

"Need help?" Catherine asked.

"You're full of mud."

"So are you."

"Not as much."

Sara continued tugging at the papaya. It was a lot more difficult than the last one, which she supposed might have had a riper stem. Finally, the papaya came loose, nearly letting Sara fall backwards onto the ground.

"I decided Greg needed something to eat." Sara said, acknowledging the two who were watching her.

"Well…we should get back to the cave…we don't want that pig coming back…" Catherine declared.  
"It's a wild boar." Sara corrected.

"You called it a pig."

"I was in a furious rage."

"Well it _looks _like a pig."

"Yeah, except it has tusks that can take a good piece out of your leg." Sara muttered.

"We should take a look at that when we get back to the cave," Greg said, nodding at Sara.

"We need to take a look at your arm first. We were _supposed _to do that first thing but you decided you were hungry. Now we have food and you've had some sleep and something to drink." Sara said, hobbling up the slope with the papaya tucked under her arm. She pulled on vines and other plants to help her up the slick hill.

Greg sighed heavily and followed her, Catherine trailing after him. They soon made it to the top of the slope, the flickering fire coming into view. They could here faint crying from the cave and they hurried over to the cavern.

"What do you mean you can't make her stop crying?" Ecklie was shouting hysterically. His hands were over his ears and he was sitting cross-legged on his leaves.

"She said 'Sawa' but Sara isn't here." Matt's tiny voice echoed out to them as they neared. Lauren was crying steadily in the background.

"Well do _something_!"

"I can't!"

"Ecklie, you're such a pig." Sara snapped, walking in through the wall of water. She shook her head out, and wrung out her hair.

"Sawa!" Lauren cried, her face tear-stained and dirt-streaked.

Ecklie, surprisingly, held his tongue against Sara's comment but glared at her as she limped into the cave.

"Sawa! Sawa!" Lauren reached her arms out to Sara expectantly, more tears welling up and falling.

"Gimme a second Lauren…" Sara said gently, waving a hand at her. Lauren pouted and let her arms drop. Greg and Catherine walked in and stuck their hands in the waterfall, rinsing off the mud.

"Saawwaa…" Lauren whined, her eyebrows pointing skyward in a pitiful expression.

"Hold on, _please_." Sara tried her best not to limp over to Greg and Catherine, though there were remnants of it there. Greg took the fruit from her and dug in instantly, but not greedily. He walked over to his bed and sat down, eating the papaya slowly.

"_Saawwaa!_" Lauren wailed.

Sara had crouched down in the middle of the cave, pushing her left-jean-leg against her skin. The blue material was died a burgundy-type color, due to obvious blood. Sara pressed the jeans tightly against her skin, grimacing slightly, ten turned to Lauren.

"_What_?" Sara asked breathlessly.

"I have to go potty."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Greg rested on his bed, Sara kneeling over him as a doctor would their patient. Ecklie sat at the front of the cave, his eyes drooping and his mouth set in a thin line. Matt was sleeping once more, Ecklie's jacket tucked around him. Catherine had taken Lauren outside to go the bathroom, throwing Sara an opportunity she was perfectly happy to take. And now she sat here, trying to talk Greg into letting her look at his injury.

"I'm hungry."

"No you're not. You just ate."

"I'm thirsty."

"Give it up, Greg."

"Why is this such a big deal anyway?"

"Because your arm could easily be infected and then we'd have to have it cut off."

"Cut it off?"

The stared at each other for a moment, both close to laughter, then dropped the prospect.

"Do you want to take the bandage off yourself?" Sara asked, gesturing at the bloody, mud-caked t-shirt.

Greg sat up and tugged at the knot with his left hand. After a few minutes of fighting with it Greg dropped his shoulders and gave Sara an almost pouting look. He set his hands in his lap, twiddled his thumbs for a couple seconds and then held out his injured arm for Sara.

She took the knot within her fingers and gently tugged at it until the shirt's sleeves were free. They shared a quick glance and Sara parted the bandage. Once apart, the two shared another gaping look.

The arm bore a thin, slightly swollen, slice heading from about two inches from Greg's wrist and leading to his elbow. Crusted blood lined the cut and yellowish pus oozed out from the injury.

"Uhh…what were you saying about cutting my arm off Sara?" Greg questioned, his expression innocent and troubled. He stared at the wound, mouth open.

Sara, whose jaw had dropped, closed her mouth and slowly shook her head. She set the bandage on the stone floor and brought the back of her right hand to Greg's forehead. It was peculiarly warm.

"Damnit, Greg! We should have looked at this sooner!"

"How do you think _I _feel? I might have to get my arm cut off!"

Sara's lips pursed.

"I was kidding about that and you know it. This is no time for your little jokes. This is serious!"

"I know that! Look, it's _my _arm!"

Sara ignored him. She reached over for a leftover coconut shell and went and dipped it into the pool of water two feet from Greg's head.

"Hold this," she commanded, thrusting the cup of water into Greg's left hand. He hung to it like he was asked as Sara unbuttoned the bottom button on her blouse. She dug her nails into the threads on the underside and tugged at it, trying to rip of a strip of cloth.

"Greg how many women have you slept with?" Sara asked flatly, her face straight, hands bent on ripping her shirt.

Greg raised an eyebrow.

"Why, are you interested?"

"What did I tell you about joking around?" She threw her work down and her face snapped to his.

"Sorry." He shrunk back.

Sara sighed through her nose and returned to her shirt. After a minute she said quietly, "I need to know if there's a possibility of me getting something like AIDS…"

"Oh. Don't worry, I get checked after every one-night-stand."

"Good."

"What about you and that boar bite?"

"It's not a bite; it attacked me with its tusks. Besides…if you had to worry about the blood soaking my jeans you might have had me in bed by now."

"Uh-huh…is this some creepy second-hand-virginity thing?"

"Drop it."

Finally, the worn piece of fabric tore from the rest of Sara's shirt. She took the water from Greg and dipped the cloth into it, wrung it out, and began to dab at the injury.

"When was your last tetanus shot?"

"I'm up to date. Trust me; I'm not one of those guys who put of going to the doctor."

Sara stared at him in mid-wipe.

"What?"

"Nothing." She looked away, slowly shaking her head and continuing to clean the cut.

They were silent for a little while before Sara spoke up again; voicing a question she had been yearning to ask for a long time.

"Greg…why are you so different?"

Greg looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"On this island. You're back to giving wise-crack comments and joking about everything. Even before the island, when we were on the plane, in the car on the way to the airport, on the actual airplane," She looked him in the eye. "I was wondering…it's just...nice…to have the old Greg back for awhile."

A look of realization appeared on Greg's face and he pressed his lips together looking away.

"The old Greg, huh? The one with freaky hair? The one who goofed off in the DNA lab, blasting rock n' roll over the radio? The one who smuggled Victoria Secrets magazines in past Eck—whoops."

Sara smirked and nodded.

"And who would the new Greg be, per say?" he asked her.

She thought for a moment, moving her gaze to Ecklie who had not reacted to Greg's comment about the magazines, and who could even possibly be sleeping while sitting.

"Well…no more t-shirts…suits…flat hair. No more jokes or annoying riddles, strictly business, quiet. I can't stand it when you're quiet. It makes me nervous."

Greg seemed to ponder that for a moment then he shrugged.

"I guess it all just has to do with stress. When I was a lab rat I knew exactly what I was doing and didn't need to worry too much about messing up big-time.

"We're back!"

Greg and Sara looked to the cave entrance to see Catherine standing there, Lauren holding onto her hand.

Greg and Sara mumbled greetings as Catherine wrung out herself and Lauren.

"Lauren needed a bit of coaxing to use a tree for a toilet, isn't that right?" Lauren buried her face into Catherine's side. "Look…uhh…I'm going to try and get a bit more sleep. The rain actually looks like it might let up soon."

"Good. Then we can get a bonfire going…the sooner we're found the better." Sara said, re-dipping the rag into the water and rubbing off the last of the pus, though it remained red and puffy.

Catherine headed over to her pile of leaves, laid down on her stomach, her head facing Sara and Greg. She placed it on her hands and crossed her legs, swinging them like a teenage girl at a sleepover.

"Who am I kidding; I'm too anxious to sleep. What with that pig out there."

"Boar," Sara corrected.

"Whatever."

Lauren, who had been watching her brother, walked over to the group and watched them instead.

"Are you playing doctor?" she asked, an eyebrow cocked and appearing to ponder Sara.

"No. Greg got hurt."

"Are you the doctor?"

"Yes, Sara is the doctor and Greg is the patient." Catherine offered.

"But Sara has an owie too." Lauren pointed out, literally.

"Yes she does." Greg said, "But she's too stubborn to get it taken care of right away."

This was responded to on Sara's part with a quiet cough and clearing of her throat.

"What now?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"You're doing it again."

Sara shrugged then changed the subject. "We should put a new bandage on it to keep dirt out, but I'm worried that we'll just be putting direct bacteria on it. Leave it bare for tonight to let it air out and scab over."

"And what about _your_ 'owie'?"

Sara shifted so that she wasn't sitting on her left leg. She lifted up her pant leg and the three of them looked at the gash. It wasn't very deep, but it had broken the skin, leaving a purple rim around the two or three inch gash. Blood still leaked slowly from it.

"It's not that bad actually…it just hurts like hell…"

Catherine threw her a warning glance then pointed her eyes at Lauren, who had taken no notice of Sara's language.

"We can leave it for now, don't you think?" Sara said, looking up at the others. They nodded in response. Then Lauren yawned. She crawled over to Greg and sat in his lap, yawning again.

"I want a story…" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Catherine stood up and reached out for her, lifting her up by her underarms. Lauren wrapped her arms around Catherine's neck. Catherine set her down next to Matthew's sleeping form, tucking more of Ecklie's jacket around her. She began to whisper a story about a princess and dragons and her dog that saved the day.

Sara suddenly realized that she was exhausted. Her eyes were burning and the beginnings of a yawn lingered at the back of her throat. Ecklie had awakened her after only fifteen minutes of light sleep.

Sara spoke to Greg softly, vaguely listening to Catherine who explained how Princess Lauren's dog saved her from the dragon, "I'm going to go to sleep, all right?"

Greg nodded, turning over onto his left side and closing his eyes. Sara walked over to her bed and lay down. She stared at the fire, barely more than a bed of burning coals and ashes. She reached over and tossed some wood in, then just as Catherine reached the part where Princess Lauren lived happily ever after, Sara fell asleep.

* * *

Sara woke up to silence. She opened her eyes and noted that the fire was once again reduced to glowing embers. It wasn't making any noise and Sara threw on another piece of wood and some more dry leaves. But the silence was more than just an almost dead fire. The rain had slowed considerably.

Sara brushed hair out of her face and looked at the entrance of the cave. She could see out of it. The sky was a light gray outside, through the trees, as if the sun was trying to poke out. The waterfall above the entrance of the cavern was gone. It was drizzling outside, and the distant echoes of thunder were barely heard. Seabirds called out in the silence, rejoicing in the farewell of a storm.

Sara rubbed her eyes. Something still didn't feel right. Remembering last time something felt wrong, Sara took a quick scan around the cave to make sure everyone was accounted for. Greg was dozing, as were Matt, Lauren, Ecklie, and Catherine. Everybody was here. So why did she feel uneasy?

She pulled up her pant leg and looked at her injury. It appeared fine. She should wash it, but it looked uninfected. Thinking hard about what could be bothering her, Sara trusted her senses. She hadn't seen anything wrong, except for the dwindling fire, which she had fixed. Was she perhaps going paranoid? Then she heard another noise, the noise of shuffling feet outside the cave. Sara held her breath. Not _this _again. She kept quiet, listening hard.

More rustling, and then a flat burrowing nose, framed by two ivory tusks showed at the edge of the cave, digging into the mud and uprooting fallen leaves.

"Oh crap…" Sara said under her breath, eyeing the pig as it walked slowly through the mud, excavating with its snout. She reached around her; looking for a rock should she need it to defend herself. Should she try and get it away from the cave and away from everybody else? Or should she leave it to its business? If she aggravated it, it might charge her again and that was what she least wanted. She couldn't find a weapon.

"Sawa?" Lauren was awake. She sat up, the jacket slipping from her shoulders. "Sawa, what's 'cwap'?"

"Lauren, come here, please? Very slowly, okay?"

The little girl looked confused, tilting her head to one side.

"Lauren, come here."

"Why?"

"Because, I told you so."

Lauren stretched her tiny arms and yawned, then stood up, stretched again and yawned a second time. Sara, her arm outstretched, glanced at the boar outside, who didn't seem to have noticed them. It continued shoveling mud.

"What are you looking at Sawa?" Lauren asked, turning to follow Sara's gaze. She caught sight of the boar and swiveled to face it. "Ooh! Look at the piggy Sawa! Auntie Diana likes piggies!" Lauren screeched loudly, pointing at the boar.

Sara clenched her eyes shut, wishing that the pig continued to mind its own business, before she opened them a second later. The boar perked its head up at Lauren's cry and waved its head around, looking for the source of the noise. Its eyes settled on the cave entrance. Saradashed forwardfor Lauren who was standing in the path of the boar and pulled her away, just as the boar bobbed its head up and down threateningly, turning to face them.

The next moments went by far too quickly. A massive bang was heard as the pig squealed, preparing to charge at the two. Sara blinked as Lauren screamed, covering her ears. Ecklie, Catherine, Matt, and Greg jumped awake, but Sara just stood there, staring.

The wild boar was dead, splayed in the mud, blood flowing from a fresh bullet wound in its neck.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Lauren was sobbing, her hands digging into Sara's shoulders, her face etched with panic and fright. Tears streamed down, and Sara tried her best to calm her, though her own heart was racing. Her mouth hung wide as she stared at the dead boar, breath and words escaping her.

Catherine materialized on Sara's right, her eyes large, looking shocked.

"Hello?" Catherine called out of the cave.

No answer.

She took a cautious step forward, her heart pounding and stomach churning as she pressed forward. "Hello? I-Is anybody there?" Again, no answer. Catherine stood at the front of the cave, peering around its edges, trying to spot the shooter. Nothing. With a deep breath, she stepped out of the cave's security, into the jungle and looked around. She glanced to her left and right, ahead and behind, even up, and nothing strange appeared.

Catherine threw her hands up.

"Nobody. There's nobody out here except for this dead boar."

Greg stepped out as well, rubbing his head. "Did what I think just happen, really just happen?" he asked, "Or am I still dreaming? Maybe I should go back to bed. I don't feel so good."

"That depends on what you're thinking Greg." Catherine muttered, bending down to the corpse and examining it.

"I'm thinking that a wild boar has just been shot down at the front of a cave filled with six unarmed people on a supposedly deserted island."

"You're awake."

He pinched himself anyway then spoke once more, standing next to Catherine and the boar, gazing down at it as though vaguely interested. "Boy we're going to feel really stupid if we discover some village where there's food and water and showers. I could use a drink. Do you think they'd have a nice margarita handy? I could really use a drink."

Sara found her voice and answered Greg flatly, "Greg, if there are people on this island they would have noticed the plane crash." Matt walked up behind her, taking his still crying sister's hand in his, wrapping his fingers through hers. Lauren freed Sara and squirmed, allowing Sara to release her and head over to the other two. "The beach we got here on has the best view of the crash. They'd have seen us and, supposedly, come to help."

"If they were friendly," Greg added cheekily. He rocked on the balls of his feet, hands in his pockets. "What if it's somebody else from the plane?"

"Despite the fact that there was clearly nobody else in the water with us, how could they have a gun?"

He pursed his lips. "Okay, next theory. Any ideas, Cath?"

Catherine was still closely studying the dead animal, turning her head one way and then the next, taking in the overall appearance of it. Its jaw was slack, showing a row of teeth framed by the large tusks. The boar's black beady eyes stared out from its head, the eyelids half-closed. The bullet hole was nestled between its shoulder blade and neck, most likely lodged in the vertebrae or a through-and-through, piercing a number of organs on its way out.

"Catherine?" Greg prodded. She looked up at him, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. It was growing steadily warmer, and humidity was pungent, something the Las Vegans weren't exactly used to.

"Um. Well we're definitely not alone. Unless Ecklie is hiding a gun."

The man didn't seem amused as he stood with his hands on his hips, thumbs in his pockets. Catherine glanced at him for his response then looked back.

"The bullet…" She reached around to the back of the pig's corpse, looking around its other side and spotting what she was searching for: an exit wound. "The bullet was a through-and-through." She dug around in the mud for a couple of seconds before pulling out victoriously, a shiny, muddy, blood-covered bullet in between her finger and thumb.

She squinted at it, turning it in the faint light of a cloudy, tree-shadowed morning. "Looks like a rifle." Catherine turned back to the wound, following the angle from the exit wound, to the entrance wound, and beyond. "The shooter…" She shook her head and stared. "Was standing above us."  
Catherine stood up, bullet still in her fingers, her eyes fixated on one spot located above the cave. Numerous ferns and trees grew on the hill, providing good cover.

"Hello?" Catherine called nervously. She stepped past Greg and Sara, who followed her quickly. They moved in the direction of the papaya plant then turned at a palm tree, before they hit the hill. Catherine put the bullet in her pocket to free her hands as they climbed up the rocky, dirt covering that padded the top of their shelter.

When they reached the top, there were no madmen carrying rifles, but Catherine almost instantly spotted water-saturated footprints in the mud near a large tree. She walked over to the prints while Greg and Sara headed to the edge of the cave, staring down at the boar.

"Deep footprints mean heavy shooter, or heavy load." Catherine stated, reaching her hand out to the deeply set tracks and barely brushing the edge of it with her fingertips.

Sara and Greg joined her side.

"It feels strange to be doing this without a field-kit in hand, huh?" Greg said quietly, watching Catherine as she continued to examine the impressions.

Sara grunted softly in response then looked past Catherine, her eyes lingering on a trail of footprints leading further into the jungle.

"More tracks, lead in that direction," she said, pointing down another animal-made trail. The footprints followed it clearly, deeply set into the mud, puddles of water gathered in them, broken only by the soft drizzle. Sara made to walk down the path; thoughts of finding someone to help them get rescued bouncing through her head.

"Hold on there," Catherine's hand shot out and grabbed Sara's arm, sending both women almost off balance.

"What, Catherine? This person could get us back home!" Sara cried, pulling herself out of Catherine's grip and turning to face her.

"You know just as well as Greg and I do that they could be dangerous. They have a gun with them!"

Sara pressed her lips together.

"I can't believe you…I can't believe you Catherine, a chance to get off this island and head back home?" Her voice was higher than usual, with a certain intenseness that made her seem like she was on the brink of hysteria. "How long have we been here, 24, 48 hours? Greg's arm is infected, Lauren and Matt have lost their parents, I have a gash in my leg from a damn boar, Ecklie's driving everybody off the wall, we get a chance to get out of here and back to our everyday lives, and you want me to hold on? Just because this person _might _be dangerous?"

The two women glared at each other, brown eyes on blue, and nobody was going to back down.

"Uh…Sara—" Greg began, but he was cut off.

"Be quiet Greg," Catherine snapped, "I need to straighten a few things out." Her voice was stern, her jaw set and teeth clenched. "Okay, first off," She pointed her finger at Sara. "If you think that I don't want out of here as much as you do, you're wrong. Damn wrong. I have a daughter at home, and I have absolutely no idea how she is, what anyone has told her about us crashing or anything."

Sara folded her arms; not threateningly, just to give her something to do with her hands, and finally her eyes left Catherine's and fleeted to the ground.

"I have a mother at home, who's either worried sick about me, trying to console her granddaughter, or who has no idea what's happened." Her voice took on a different edge, as though she were trying hard not to cry, though she still glared at Sara. "I don't want to stay here Sara…Lindsey's already lost her father…I need to get home safe and sound as soon as possible, just so she knows that she's not going to lose me too…"

Sara looked back at Catherine, whose eyes had begun to water. She wiped them quickly, and her brow which was covered with drizzle and beads of sweat.

"I'm sorry Cath." Sara said quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking. Of course you want to get out of here."

Catherine seemed to brush the situation aside, as the next moment she was completely off-topic. "Now, if we're going to follow those tracks, we're going to have to come up with a sort of plan."

"A sort of plan?" Greg repeated.

"Well, sort of like…guidelines, really. How far we're going to follow them, what to do if we come across civilization—which, mind you, isn't likely since this island is much more than a mile wide."

Sara and Greg nodded in agreement.

"All right…how far do you want to follow these tracks for?" Catherine asked the two of them.

"Well, obviously until we find something or we start heading into unfamiliar territory." Sara said quickly.

"I say not much more than 50 feet. We should keep the cave in sight." Greg answered.

"Greg's right, we should make sure we can either see the cave, or get back to it. Sara, rip a strip of cloth from your shirt. Greg's probably always wanted to see you in a belly-shirt anyway."

Greg smirked and Sara frowned, but worked at ripping another strip of fabric.

"Lead the way Sara," Catherine said, nodding at her. Sara turned on cue and began to follow the footprints, still tugging at her shirt.

"Tracks are widely spread, as if they were running. Maybe when Lauren was screaming?" she offered.

"Maybe because they didn't want to be found," Catherine said, ducking under a giant leaf that Greg held up for her.

"Or maybe because they were as startled as we were at discovering that there were other people on this island." Sara defended.

They continued walking through the underbrush, following the crude dirt pathway forged by animals.

"Hey, you guys? I can't see the cave anymore." Greg said after a couple minutes of walking.

"This is where that cloth strip of yours comes in, Sara." Catherine said, "Give it here."

Sara handed the red fabric to her and Catherine tied it to a nearby tree.

"When we can't see this tree anymore, we'll head back." Catherine declared. Sara didn't argue, and again turned to the trail. The footprints were closer together now, as if the hunter had slowed their pace to a walk, though the tracks zigzagged back and forth.

"I can just barely see the tree." Greg said after another few minutes, stopping and squinting behind them. "Hey, do you think we should head back, this person is way ahead of us by now."

"Oh great…" Sara said suddenly, disbelief in her tone. "They're gone."

"What?" Catherine said questioningly.

"The footprints, they're gone. Look," She moved to the side so Catherine and Greg could see that the tracks were indeed, gone. They stopped as two evenly placed feet, next to a tree.

"Do you think they climbed the tree?" Sara asked, looking up and brushing wet hair off her face.

"Why would the hide?" Catherine said.

"I don't know. Like I said earlier, maybe they were startled."

"That would explain their running, but not their hiding."

"There's only one way to find out if they're up there." Greg interrupted. He proudly marched past the two women, wrapped his arms around the trunk of the palm tree and shook it back and forth. A few ripe coconuts fell and settled around the base of the trunk. No guns or people with guns followed.

The three squinted at the top of the trees and saw nothing.

"We should head back…they're obviously long gone…" Catherine said quietly, gently tugging on Sara's sleeve and a loop in Greg's shorts. Greg turned to follow her, and with one final long look, Sara did too.

* * *

The sun was high in the brilliantly blue sky, scattered thin wisps of clouds drifting every so often past it. Seabirds called from across the waves, screeching and soaring above the calm, clear shore, landing here and there to peck at the dead beached fish nestled amongst the seaweed strewn over the sand from the storm.

In a large area of sand, slightly farther from the cave, a very large pit had been dug out on the beach, piled high with the logs from felled trees and the bottom filled with coconut husk. Off to the side of the bonfire-to-be was a stack of palm fronds and other green vegetation. Sara stood next to it, Lauren on her hip, Catherine to her left, Matt holding tightly to her hand, and Ecklie standing to his left.

"What's taking him so long?" Sara asked, trying to fish Lauren's Barbie-doll out of her hair where Lauren had taken to putting it for the past hour they had taken accumulating all the materials for their signal fire, and then the next half hour after that in which they waited for them to dry off in the sun.

"You know Greg…he's probably trying to come up with this whole shebang, and then got distracted and forgot he was supposed to—Oh, wait…here he comes."

Greg emerged from the wall of trees, brightly flaming piece of wood in his hand, held high like a torch. He put a cautious hand around it to prevent the wind from blowing it out then jogged lightly over to the group.

"Okay, sorry it took me so long…I couldn't get the stick to stay lit. Same thing always happens to me with matches."

"What is he doing?" Lauren asked, looking curiously at the torch Greg held.

"He's going to light a fire." Sara answered, still trying to take the doll out of her hair. Lauren seemed satisfied with that answer and watched with interest. Greg stuck the fire under the tipi they had formed into the coconut husk. It burned quickly, and the flame spread just as fast. Greg dragged the torch to the undersides of the logs and bark, and with the combined heat of the burning husk and such, the logs too began to flame.

"There." Greg declared, standing up and blowing out the torch, and then tossing it into the fire. "Give it awhile to get going well and then we can put the leaves on it to make lots of smoke."

"Thank you Greg," Sara said through gritted teeth as she continued to tug at the Barbie doll.

"No problemo," he said, brushing his forehead to get rid of sweat. The afternoon sun was blaring down hard on them, the heat and humidity heightening still. The flame grew higher, the stack of logs properly burning now. "I would ask you Sara to put the smoke on them but you like kind of busy."

Lauren was standing on the sand now as Sara used two hands to pry the doll out of her curls.

"I'll get it…" Catherine walked over to the palm fronds, with Matt following her, and then she dumped them in the fire. They burned slowly, but smoke released from them thick and black.

"Perfect." Greg said, rubbing his hands together. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go for a swim."

"What?" Sara cried, "Oh this is stupid…" She grabbed the end of hair stuck to Barbie's head and wrenched. Barbie's head came free, numerous dark brown hairs tied around her neck.

"You strangled Barbie, Sara! You and your killer curls!" Greg laughed, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips.

"Oh ha, ha. You're going swimming?"

"It's way too hot and look at that water! Crystal clear, just begging to be jumped into."

"What about your arm?"

"What about it? It still feels the same, and it's scabbed over. I feel kind of feverish and tired but I'm fine enough to swim."

Sara looked annoyed as she handed the doll to Lauren who was whining for it.

"I'm coming with." Catherine stated, bending down and pulling off her shoes and socks.

"But what about that shark?" Sara pointed out. That shark that had been one of the first dangers on their way to the island, other than drowning and the prospect of getting burned to a crisp after the crash.

"Sara, don't you think we'd see it in that water?" Greg said, as though it were obvious.

"I want to go swimming." Lauren whispered, tugging on one of the loops in Sara's jeans. She looked up at Sara with pleading eyes.

"Go ahead, have Catherine take you."

"But I want _you_ to come."

Sara had been afraid of this. She bent down and studied Lauren, trying to think of the best way to convince her she wasn't coming. Well, maybe she'd go wading and Lauren could do what she wanted.

"Catherine…you're a mother, what's appropriate swimming attire for a 3-year-old without a swimsuit?"

Catherine pondered it as she took off her navy blue t-shirt. Sara gaped at her.

"What are you doing? I should have asked what the appropriate swimming attire is for _you _when you don't have a swimsuit!"

"What? I told you it was just like wearing a bikini. Besides, I was saving my lingerie for the seminar." She winked at Sara, who was looking past Catherine at Ecklie, who looked shocked to the point of speechlessness, not that he had said much to anyone for awhile. He wasn't looking at Catherine, but at the bonfire which was smoking gloriously now.

"Anyway, Sara, your original question. I would just let her go in her underwear. She told me about it when I took her to go potty when we got back. It's Minnie Mouse, isn't it?"

Lauren beamed and nodded.

Greg was already half-way to the shore, stretching as a few seabirds flew up when he walked past him. Sara dropped her head. Nothing she would say would make any the difference. She pulled off Lauren's turtleneck and then her shoes, socks, and jeans to reveal, as Catherine had said, a pair of yellow Minnie Mouse underwear.

"Can we go swimming now?" Lauren asked.

With a sigh Sara nodded. She bent down and rolled up her jeans, careful of her injury even though it was only a large scab and bruise, and then pulled off her shoes and socks.

Matt had pulled off his shirt and left it lying in a pile along with everybody else's and was walking down to shore after Greg, with Catherine slightly behind.

"Are you coming Ecklie?" Sara asked, noticing that he was not making a move to do anything other than stand there with his hands on his hips, staring at the fire, morbid look on his face.

"No." he said through a sigh.

"Are you sure? That outfit looks like its pretty uncomfortable."

"I'm going to go for a walk."

And that's just what he did; walking towards the forest in the opposite direction of the ocean, which Sara and Lauren trudged down too. Greg was having a conversation with Catherine, Matt wading into the water slowly, his hands skimming its surface as he went in deeper. It was a very pretty clear blue, soft waves curling onto the debris-covered shore.

"Very sexy Cath…but I suppose the plain, black cotton bra and plain, matching underwear aren't nearly as flashy as what you wore way-back-when?"

"A woman never tells." And with that she waded into the water and dove in. She came back up to the surface, brushing hair out of her face, "Oh God that's nice…" She dove off again, into slightly deeper water.

"Sawa, go in." Lauren ordered, grabbing Sara's finger and pulling her forwards. Greg laughed and kicked water at Sara, who glared at him.

"You're going to get wet. And you know it." Greg passed Sara up and did a belly-flop into the water. He came up to the surface. "That kinda hurt," he said, rubbing his stomach and then swimming away.

Sara sighed as Lauren dragged her further in. The soft waves knocked against Sara's knees and Lauren's chest. Lauren seemed to be enjoying herself, for she had finally let go of Sara's hand and was hitting the water.

"Do you want to splash?" she asked Sara.

"The waves are splashing you." Sara stated as another roll of water brushed past them. Lauren looked at her as if to say, '_You're no fun…_'then she turned back to splashing the waves. Greg swam past, doing the backstroke and squirting a fountain of water out of his mouth to get some laughs from Lauren. Matt was standing in the water, looking as if he were deciding whether to dive in or not.

Greg swam up behind him and asked, "Are you going to go in or not?"

Matt looked at him, then back at the waves and shrugged.

"Want me to throw you in?"

Matt's eyebrows went up and he stared at Greg, then he smiled and nodded eagerly. Greg stood up, grabbed Matt by the armpits and tossed him in Catherine's direction. The splash Matt created drenched Catherine, who then proceeded to a splash war between the two.

Lauren stood splashing in the water, bending down and throwing it, letting the waves hit her face.

"Rarr! I'm a shark! I'm going to eat you, Lauren!" Greg growled, letting the waves carry him to the giggling girl. He grabbed her around the waist and dragged her into deeper water.

"Careful, Greg!" Sara commanded anxiously, taking a step forward as Greg began spinning Lauren through the water.

"Oh she's fine," he answered, stopping. "Aren't you?" Lauren nodded, her large smile agreeing with her nod. "Hey, Lauren, should I go get Sara?" Another nod.

"No, Greg!" Sara cried, taking a step backwards, holding a hand out. "I don't want to get wet!"

That was a lie. She was sweating and the nice, cool, knee-deep water she was standing in wasn't cooling her off nearly enough. She kept imagining how good it would feel to just let loose and dive in, but she wasn't looking forward to having to dry her clothes out afterwards.

"Aw, come on!" he said, swimming closer, Lauren in the crook of his arm.

"_No _Greg!"

"Get her Greg!" Catherine shouted, laughing and holding a hand out to shield herself from Matt who was splashing her.

"_No!_"

"Get her!"

Greg stood up and set Lauren down. She walked over to the side and watched Sara, a horrible mischievous look on her face as if she had planned this.

"Don't, Greg." Sara whispered, her right hand held out over the water, her knees bracing, and her left hand keeping distance between her and Greg.

Greg cocked an eyebrow, a smirk beginning to spread.

"Didn't I tell you, you were going to get wet?"

"I'm not going to get wet because you're not going to do what I think you're about to do."

Greg smirk was arrogant looking now. He turned to look at Catherine, who was smiling widely. She looked at Matt, who nodded. Catherine then nodded at Greg, and he turned back to Sara.

"No, Gre—Ahh!" Sara screamed as he grabbed her arm and pushed the small of her back, sending her catapulting headfirst into the water. It washed over her, cool and inviting just as she had expected it to be. The heat of the sun was gone and her skin felt cool, other than the dull sting of the wound on her leg. She came back up to the surface, coughing and sputtering.

"GREG!" she roared. "You…you jerk!" But she was laughing, as was everybody else. "You _jerk_…" she muttered through the smile she was trying to hold back.

"Sawa, you got all wet!" Lauren cried, giggling madly and clapping her hands. Sara sighed and looked at her, then waded over to Greg, whose eyes were closed in laughter. Then she grabbed his good arm and pulled him roughly into the water.

He came back up to the surface sputtering as Sara had and shook his head out.

"What was that supposed to do, get me wet?"

"Payback."

"Right, like I deserved it."

"You threw me in the water when I didn't want to get wet." Sara told him through a smile.

"Yes you did. Your mouth said no, but your eyes said yes. Plus there was the fact that you were sweating in those jeans and shirt."

Sara rolled her eyes then dived back into the water, letting it rush over her again. When she stood back up, Greg was smiling. "Told you so,"

Sara didn't hear him. She had turned and was looking out at the waves, her mouth set grimly.

"What?" Catherine asked, standing up and walking over.

"What do you see?" Sara asked her quietly.

Catherine followed her gaze.

"Umm…nothing."

"Exactly. The plane is gone. It must have gotten swept away or pushed further under."

"Sara, they have ways of seeing things underwater. Satellites and plus we have the bonfire going."

"Hey you guys!" Greg cried, stepping up next to them.

"Hmm?"

They turned to him.

"Look," He pointed out over the ocean and they followed his finger. There, zigzagging through the waves, were seven or so triangular fins.

"Sharks?" Sara said quickly, taking a step back. But Greg was smiling. He shook his head and turned his head to look at her.

"Dolphins,"

"I'll get Lauren," Catherine said. She trudged through the water over to the girl who was still splashing. Matt stepped up next to Greg, the water up to his chest. Greg looked eager as the fins neared. Catherine appeared on Sara's right, Lauren on her hip.

"Do you see that Lauren?" she asked her. "Do you see those dolphins out there?"

"Yeah…" she said slowly, brushing a piece of her hair out of her face.

The pod of dolphins drew nearer, and the group could see them clearly, zooming quickly through the waves, jumping out of the water and then diving back in. They could hear the clicks and squeals of the animals as they neared.

With a soft intake of breath, Lauren twisted around on Catherine's hip, trying to get a look at the dolphins that were now swimming in the water around the adults' waists.

"Wow…" Catherine whispered, reaching out to one of the Bottlenose dolphins who had turned right-fin-up in the water. She stroked its pale underside softly, dragging her fingers along its rubbery skin. Lauren too reached out and patted it. Then with a click and high-pitched trill, it righted itself, blew water out of its blowhole and swam away.

"Friendly, aren't they?" Sara stated, petting the back of one as it swam past.

"I bet these guys have been to Hawaii. They're probably used to tourists and stuff, know about humans." Greg said, "They're probably following the storm, chowing down on the schools of fish left behind."

"Hmm…" was all Sara answered him with. The dolphin she had stroked was now settled next to Matt, who rubbed its belly softly, looking slightly uncertain.

"Oh, look at that!" Catherine exclaimed, pointing farther out. "That dolphin just did a flip! That was something, huh Lauren?"

Lauren nodded, smiling widely, and reaching down to a smaller dolphin circling them.

"Hey, guys, watch this." Greg said, smiling. He grabbed onto the fin of one of the large dolphins. The animal appeared thrilled and took off, dragging Greg with. It jumped in and out of the water, not high, like a skipping stone. Up, down, up, down. Finally, it dove completely underwater, pulling Greg under.

Seconds passed, and Catherine and Sara held their breath, waiting. A whole minute went by.

"Greg?" Sara called, taking a step forward, but next second the dolphin headed for her and broke the surface, Greg still hanging onto it. He gasped for breath and coughed.

"A little slow when it comes to humans needing air more than them," he said, wiping water from his face and ruffling his hair.

Sara stared down at the dolphin. It was hitting her hand with its snout and clicking.

"Have a go Sara." Greg said, nodding at her.

Sara looked uneasily at it, petting its bill softly, though it continued to bump her.

"You're going to insult it." Greg declared.

"Well, it…are you sure I'm not too heavy for it or anything?"

Greg laughed out loud.

"Didn't you see how it dragged me? The guy knows what he's doing."

Sara looked uneasily at it once more, then took its dorsal fin in her left hand, plastering the rest of her arm on one side of it, and then her other arm on the other side. With a loud click, the dolphin took off, pulling Sara along with ease.

"I'm going to do that." Catherine declared as the dolphin continued to pull Sara along, skipping the waves.

Greg and Matt were splashing with one of the dolphins and Lauren was still petting them. Catherine set her down in shallower water so she could stand then looked around for a strong enough Bottlenose.

The dolphin Sara was clinging desperately onto zigged and zagged across the surface of the water, then suddenly, it propelled itself downwards, into the water. Sara took a deep breath, mustered up some courage, and then let the animal drag her down. She could feel its back fin moving up and down, feel every muscle of its body flex as it turned and swerved. Just when she was beginning to yearn for air, the animal's nose turned upwards. Its tail fin pushed up and down forcefully, pushing the water hard, and then Sara felt air around her, but then she felt no water. The dolphin had leapt full out of the ocean. It turned in the air and dove down for the water. Sara finally let go, breathing heavily out of surprise at the amount of strength the dolphin had, being able to thrust itself and Sara out of the water.

Sara swam into shallower water, though she was cut off by Catherine, holding tightly to the fin of a dolphin as it dove by. But as she was swimming, the dolphin that had thrown her clear into the sky came up behind her, stuck its head between her knees, and pushed her forward. She gasped in surprise and tried her best not to fall off.

Greg was laughing when she reached him, and she splashed some water on him.

"You should have seen your face when it came up behind you!" he cried. "And when it took you into the air, wow. Too heavy my butt,"

"And when did you learn so much about dolphins Greg?" Sara asked, petting one as it swam past, straight for Matt. Lauren was laughing with a small baby dolphin beside her in the shallows.

"Me and a couple of surfing buddies, California, Florida, Hawaii. Dolphins make excellent surfing partners and excellent shark repellent when together."

"Uh-huh." Sara studied him for a moment then trudged over to Lauren.

"Hey!" Greg suddenly shouted.

"What?" Sara asked. "I didn't kick you," she added, petting the small dolphin near Lauren and then sitting down in the water.

"No, but your dolphin buddy just splashed me!" Greg stared down at the animal whose mouth was wide open. "Yes, you. Don't look at me that way. I know you're a beautiful marine mammal. Yes I know. And I don't have any food for you. I'm sorry, I'm not a tourist. Nope. Not a tourist."

Sara chuckled to herself and leaned back. Her curls had flattened due to the water, but they were still tangled as ever. She could see the smoke from the bonfire swirling up to the sky. They would be out of here soon, and then she might even look back on the memory and smile. It's not everyday you get to swim with dolphins. She closed her eyes and dipped her head back into the water, the coolness of it heaven against her skin. The dull ache in her leg was nothing.

The sun warmed her face gently, and the water cooled it. And then she heard it.

"_Help! Help me you…well, damnit just help! Help!_"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Sara sat up and squeezed the water from her hair, straining her ears to make sure she had heard what she thought she just heard.

"Hurry up! I'm stuck!"

Yep, it was Ecklie all right.

"Hey, Sara! Did you hear that?" Greg shouted, trudging through the water with Matt trailing behind him.

"Yeah, I did." Sara stood and immediately felt the heat and humidity wash over her. Suppressing a groan, she raised Lauren out of the water and placed her on her hip, debating whether Ecklie was really the one calling them, and what possible trouble he could be in that he actually had to call them for help.

Greg and Matt walked onto shore and Sara followed them, trying to ignore the fact that her soaked clothes were weighing her down as she padded through the sand. Catherine left the dolphins in the water and trod up to the others at shoreline. The group stood and listened for a long, tense minute, before Catherine said, "He's that way," and pointed off in the direction towards the cave.

The group followed her finger towards the forest edge, and then once there, they stopped and listened again. Further ahead. They reached the pathway between the cave and papaya trees. Towards the trees. Follow.

"Help!" The calls were louder, and was that fear?

Catherine took the lead, pushing away foliage and carefully making her way down the muddy slope. Past the trees, and cries growing louder still. Beyond a row of bushes Sara partially recognized as the place she had fallen after catching Ecklie finishing up his business. Further than those, left, right, zigzagging through more trees and further yet.

"Help me!" This time, Ecklie's voice was so near the group halted in their tracks and glanced around frantically.

"Ecklie?" Greg called, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here!"

Straight ahead.

They almost trotted towards a small stack of felled trees. Greg was first now, Catherine and Sara hanging back slightly, contemplating what had happened. Was he maybe underneath the trees? No, that didn't seem right. These trees weren't fresh.

Greg approached the pile, looking straight ahead and right when he prepared to hop over them, a sudden cry stopped him abruptly.

"STOP!"

Greg looked down, and there was Ecklie, up to his armpits in quicksand. His balding head was covered with flecks of it and his hands clinging tightly to a few vines hanging from a nearby tree. Greg stifled a laugh and moved off the logs.

"Found him."

Sara, Catherine, Lauren, and Matt stepped up behind Greg and peered down at Ecklie, still clutching desperately to the vines. Both women CSI's experienced the same difficulty in not bursting out with laughter at this anything but comical situation.

"Will you get me out of here please? I'm surprised you found me at all."

"How are we going to do that?" Sara asked, her lips tightly pursed to avoid bursting.

"Well, I would like it if you could give me a stick or something to pull me out with!"

He continued to slowly sink.

"HURRY!" There was actually fear in his eyes and the others' smirks died away instantly.

"Okay, umm…well, he's holding onto those vines. Umm…but they're too far away for us to use them to pull him out." Catherine muttered quickly, running her hands through her hair.

"What about one of these logs?" Greg offered.

Sara shook her head. "No way, they're rotted. We don't know how well they'll hold."

"We could use them as a fulcrum." Catherine stated. "All we'd have to do is find something strong enough that we could use as a lever."

"That might work."

"Help!" Ecklie was up to the base of his neck.

"Like what?" Greg asked, glancing nervously at the panicked Ecklie who was pulling himself further out by the vines.

"We don't have anything already made. Looking for something would take too long." Sara said, swallowing as Ecklie sunk back in to his neck after pulling himself partially out.

"Sara I think we're going to have to trust in the logs," Catherine said, though she sounded nervous.

Sara stared at the total of three logs, thinking hard for any other solution. Nothing.

"All right…" she said slowly. She put Lauren on the ground and with the help of Catherine and Greg, turned the top log so that the dead leaves at the end were facing them, and the roots dangled close to Ecklie's face.

"Ecklie, try to grab on!" Catherine cried. "Pull yourself a little further out and reach for it!"

Ecklie tugged on the vines, coming slowly out of the pond of muck. He was now only in to his armpits. He tightened his grip with his right hand, and reached out towards the log.

"Try and get it out further!" he yelled after reaching as far as he could. His left hand snapped back to the vines.

Balancing the log on the others, the three pushed it further out.

"That's as far as we can get it without losing control Ecklie!" Greg shouted. "Try again!"

Ecklie did so, retightening his grip and reaching out. And then he managed to get his left hand on the end of it. He used it to pull himself further out, so the muck was up to his chest. His right hand still held the vines, which were beginning to strain.

Ecklie turned his face to the other adults, fear still in them despite their usual coldness.

"Can I trust you?" he asked calmly, swallowing and taking in a shuddering breath.

The others' mouths opened and their eyebrows rose. Then after sharing a brief confirmative glance, they nodded.

"You can trust us Ecklie." Catherine said softly.

And that was when the vine snapped. Ecklie flailed, desperately supporting himself with his left as his right released the vines and grasped the end of the log.

"Are you all right?" Sara called, holding hard to the log.

Ecklie nodded breathing in quickly through his nose and holding tightly to the log.

"All right Cath…time to use that lever idea. Quicksand is all about suction, right?" Greg said. "All right, on the count of three, we'll push down and Ecklie should come out of the sand. Right?"

Nods all around.

"Okay…1…2…3…Push!"

And they did; all three pushed down on the end of the log and with a loud squelching sound, Ecklie was pulled completely out of the quicksand's clutches other than his feet a couple of inches in it.

"All right, now just shimmy down the trunk," Sara grunted, struggling to keep the log balanced.

Ecklie took in a few deep breaths then attempted to swing one leg over the log. Fail. Again, he tried, and again he failed. Furrowing his brow, he tried one more time and just barely managed to get his foot over the log. Soon the rest of the leg made its way over as well. Now, he just had to turn around. He did so carefully, his forehead creased in concentration as he put both legs on the same side, and then moved his right leg to the other side so he faced the group struggling to keep the log balanced.

"Careful…" Sara said under her breath when the log wobbled as Ecklie first began his descent. He came closer, slowly, carefully, steadily, and very aware of every finger he lifted and the pace at which he pulled himself closer to drier land. Halfway down the log and four feet from the rest of the group, Ecklie stopped.

"Ecklie! What are you doing?" Catherine cried, still putting her weight on the end of the log.

"Do you feel that?" he asked, sounding nervous.

They turned their attention to the wood beneath their palms. It seemed to be rumbling beneath their hands and the next second a creaking noise reached their ears.

"Ecklie! Jump!" Greg shouted, realizing what was about to happen.

"What? Are you—" But just then, the log snapped in half, and Ecklie plunged into the sand again. Sara, Catherine, and Greg tumbled backwards. Catherine slammed into the ground, Sara falling next to her and Greg landing on both of them. They scrambled up and rushed to the edge of the sinking pit.

Ecklie was up to his waist in the wet sand.

"Don't move!" Greg said, looking around for something to help them. Nothing caught his eye. Then with a deep breath, Greg planted his feet firmly beneath the two logs, and bent over so his waist was over them, and reached as far as he could out towards Ecklie. "Just take my hand and we'll get you the rest of the way out."

Ecklie reached slowly out to Greg and clamped his hand around his wrist. Greg did the same.

"Sara, Cath, I need your help." Greg said, beginning to bend upwards with difficulty. Catherine pulled on Greg to help him pull Ecklie out, and when he was close enough, Sara grabbed his other hand. With a deep breath, and a giant heave, Ecklie slithered out of the sand for a second time, and this time, he stumbled over the two logs and fell onto the muddy ground.

Ecklie lay there panting slightly, while the others stood around him, also panting.

"You're all dirty." Lauren said simply, bending down next to Ecklie's side. "Daddy said you're not supposed to play in the mud."

Ecklie glanced exhaustedly at Lauren, rolled his eyes, and then closed them with a sigh.

"You should get out of those clothes." Catherine said, sweeping over and lifting Lauren up. "And we need to get back into ours."

Ecklie waved her off, his eyes still closed.

"That hurt like hell getting pulled out of there," he mumbled.

"Do you think you'll be covered in a giant hickey?" Greg asked. "That'd be hilarious."

"Don't start Sanders."

Greg shrugged then ruffled Matt's hair, who stood anxiously next to Greg's side, one finger through a belt-loop.

"How did you manage to get stuck that far in there anyway?" Sara asked, wiping sweat from her forehead. "If Greg had stepped over those logs he wouldn't have been that far in and could have pulled himself out."

"You won't believe me." Ecklie muttered, putting a hand over his eyes.

"Try me."

Ecklie pursed his lips, then sat up and leaned back on his hands.

"You don't give up, do you Sara?"

"Well I'd kind of like to know why we just had to pull you out of quicksand."

Ecklie sighed than lay back down.

"I thought I was being chased by something," he grumbled quietly. "Like a boar or something…"

"Okay. Thank you." Sara said.

Catherine was walking off through the trees with Lauren on her hip.

"Greg, I'm going to go follow Catherine. Matt, do you want to come with? We could put your shirt back on."

Matt nodded quietly and with a look at Greg, he let go and followed Sara.

"I'm going to stay back with Ecklie to protect him from anymore 'boars'." Greg said pointedly, sitting down on the broken log.

"That's great Greg."

Matt slipped his hand through Sara's and they ventured through the brush after Catherine and Lauren.

"Oh no..." Catherine said aloud as they made their way up the hill towards the cave. The papaya trees were empty, their fruits on the ground, splattered into a muddy mush.

"No!" Sara groaned, leaving Matt standing next to Catherine, stepping up to them and bending down to examine. "Every one…smashed."

"Uh-oh." Lauren said. "It's yucky."

Sara ran her fingers over a particular smashed fruit and then her hand stopped.

"That person did it…the person that shot the boar…" she said softly, disbelievingly. "Their shoeprint, in the smashed food."

Catherine appeared next to her, and looked at the print Sara was talking about. It was there, clear as day, outlined by traces of dirt in the yellow-orange fruit.

"Sara, come on. We should check on everything else."

Sara stood up, and took a long look at the fruit.

"I think you were right Catherine."

"About what?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.

"About them not being friendly…"

Catherine stared at Sara, as if taking her in, then turned and continued walking up the hill.

"The boar is gone!" she suddenly shouted from the top of the slope.

Sara climbed up the knoll and stepped up next to Catherine. They stared ahead at the shallow imprint of where the boar had been, but there was nothing there except for some more footprints.

"Catherine," Sara nudged her in the ribs. When Catherine looked at her, Sara pointed into the darkness of the cave. But that was it. It was dark, their fire had gone out.

"That was lit only a little while ago and I'm sure that Greg put more wood on it when he got the torch."

Catherine nodded and headed into the darkened cave, Lauren clutching to her shoulder.

"Do you hear that?" she asked Sara who stayed outside with Matt by her side.

"What?"

"Exactly," She sounded nervous. "The spring's stopped."

"I'll go to our bonfire to get a torch so we can see."

"And I'll go get Greg and Ecklie." Catherine said lightly.

"All right, so you're saying that the papayas are smashed and that the spring has been stopped up and that the boar is gone?" Greg repeated after Catherine told them the situation.

Catherine nodded. "Yes Greg and it was the person who shot the boar that did it. We saw their footprints."

"Hmm…Well—"

"You guys!"

It was Sara.

"Oh great, not again." Greg muttered, "What happens now, somebody's fallen and can't get up?"

"You guys have to see this!"

"Greg, cut it out. She sounds concerned." Catherine sped up, Greg and Ecklie following her. When they reached the cave entrance, Sara was standing at the back of it, a torch held high in her hand, Matt holding her other hand, both turned to the wall.

"Sara, what is it?" Catherine asked, stepping into the cave but she was stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of a word written in scarlet across the cave wall.

**PIG**

"Oooh boy…" Catherine said slowly. "Is that—"

"Blood." Sara finished.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry, it's been awhile huh? Well, if you except excuses school started a couple days ago and I haven't really been getting that "Eureka!" feeling. Well, the ending is getting close, but it's not going to be here in less than 3 chapters and not going to take longer than 5. At least that's what I'm estimating. I could be wrong. I had difficulty with this chapter, so if you feel that it's not one of my better chapters, it's probably because it isn't. XP**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Okay, I'm sorry, if you don't really like the ship much, but this has accidentally turned into Greg/Sara. It just seemed to fit. Again, sorry if you don't like the ship! It was not originally intended to be a G/S, just a group fic with no romance, but...even me, who is no romantic, could not stray away from it.

* * *

**

Chapter Eleven

The giant flame from the bonfire twisted and curled up towards the star-filled evening sky, though the tiny sprinkles of white amongst the midnight blue went unseen through the thick black smoke emitting from the smoldering palm fronds. The glare and the warmth from the blaze reflected on the group's tired faces.

Sara and Lauren sat side by side, Lauren fully clothed and occupying herself by setting her head on Sara's thigh and walking her Barbie through the sand. Her eyes drooped and every once in awhile, she would sigh lightly and pause to stare at the fire. Sara was running her fingers through the girl's hair, trying to keep herself from thinking too hard about what the person's message had been about.

Matt was sitting cross-legged, staring into the fire quietly as usual, Ecklie's jacket draped over his shoulders. The jacket's owner was sitting with his back to the ocean, his face emotionless and his lips pursed. He tossed another piece of wood into the fire and leaned back on his palms.

Catherine and Greg sat two feet apart, backs to the forest and fronts to the fire. Greg sat cross-legged, his elbows on his knees and his hands together as he stared into the flames. Catherine was fully dressed again, one hand supporting her head, her eyes drooping, and her frown grim as she sat in thought.

The dolphins could be heard jumping and clicking in the waves behind them, their calls mingling with the rush of water and the sound of night insects. They had stayed around, even after the group had left them and then returned in a morbid daze.

After discovering the message on the cave wall, the group had left the cave, grabbing up the materials they had brought in; Ecklie's jacket, the leaf beds, and a few of the emptied out coconut shells. The leaves were spread out next to the bonfire now, serving as a shield between the sand and their skin. The coconut shells were unused at the moment, and Matt was covered in Ecklie's jacket.

Ecklie's mud-covered clothes had been washed in the saltwater, and he was now dressed in relatively clean looking clothing.

"So…what do you think the message meant?" Greg asked, finally voicing the question that had gone unspoken through each of their heads.

"Pig, it could simply be somebody crazy who for some reason thought it would be funny to write with boar blood all over the cave wall." Sara offered, causing Lauren to look up at her and then climb into her lap.

"Or…it could be personal." Catherine said quietly.

"Oh come on Cath, personal? Who would go to the lengths of shooting down our plane only to call one or all of us a pig?" Sara said, pulling her arms around Lauren and continuing to rake through her hair.

"Maybe they were mad because we took a bunch of food and thought that we were pigs?" Greg offered.

Nobody said anything. They all knew their theories were weak, and if Grissom were here, he would be telling them to look at the evidence, which was also very weak.

"I'm going to go to bed…" Catherine said. "Maybe I'll dream something." She stood up and went to get a pile of leaves.

"Me too…" Sara sighed. "And you should sleep too Lauren. I can tell you're exhausted."

To answer, Lauren yawned widely and tried to stick Barbie in Sara's hair again.

"Oh no, not this time." Sara pushed the doll away and stood up, Lauren on her hip. Lauren sighed and set her head on Sara's shoulder.

"I'll be back in a bit. I just want to go see something…" Greg muttered, standing up and brushing sand from his shorts.

"Okay," Sara said, setting Lauren down on a pile of leaves and then laying down next to her herself. She closed her eyes, feeling comfortable despite Lauren twirling her little finger in one of Sara's curls.

As Greg walked off towards the waves, Ecklie hunkered down on his leaf bed as well, sighing.

"Before I fall asleep…" he mumbled. "I'd like to thank you, for…saving my life. I thought I was going to die. That's probably the third time in the last three days I thought I was going to die, but I'd like to thank you. Really,"

Sara and Catherine's eyes fluttered open and they looked over at Ecklie, but the man had fallen asleep.

* * *

"Hey, hey, Sara! I gotta show you something."

Sara groaned and tightened her grip on Lauren's sleeping figure.

"Shut up asshole…" she whispered, obviously still half-asleep.

Lauren opened her eyes and rubbed them, then looked over at Sara holding to her gently.

"Sawa, what's an 'asshole'?" she asked innocently.

Sara's eyes shot open and she released Lauren. "Oh jeez…did I say that?"

"Yeah, you did."

Sara looked up and saw Greg standing over her, his hands in his pockets, the fire glowing on his features, casting abstract shadows around his face. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, yawning.

"Greg," she said, stifling another yawn. "What do you want?"

"I have to show you something." He sounded eager.

"What?" She still felt groggy, and was put off to discover Lauren's Barbie doll tangled in her hair again. She worked at getting it out as Greg spoke.

"Something. It's a surprise."

"Fine…" Sara pulled the Barbie out forcefully like she had last time and handed it to Lauren. "You just go back to sleep, Lauren…I'll be right back" Sara stood up, massaging her scalp where some hair was pulled out.

"You and your killer curls…" Greg muttered shaking his head and taking the lead. Sara followed narrowing her eyes at Greg.

"Greg, what is this about? Really, I'm exhausted and I've been having nightmares about giant pigs."

"I told you, you'd see."

Greg was walking away from the fire and along the beach. Sara sped up, feeling chilly with the sea breeze blowing around her. The dolphins were gone.

"Just around this corner…" Greg mumbled, holding back an overhanging branch which Sara walked under. What she saw once she turned the corner caused her mouth to drop and her eyes to widen.

"Wow."

"Cool, huh?" Greg said, smiling and stepping up next to her.

"I have never seen that many stars."

The night sky looked as if it had been sprinkled with sugar, the millions of stars twinkling down at them, surrounding a large white crescent moon off center.

"Is that the Milky Way?" Sara asked, pointing at what resembled a thin white film or maybe white smoke stretching across the sky.

"Yep," Greg pointed in the moonlight at a group of stars. "And that is the Crux Australis constellation."

"The what?" Sara raised an eyebrow at Greg.

"The Southern Cross constellation. Made up of the stars Alpha or Acrux, Gamma or Gacrux, Delta, Beta, and Epsilon. A navigational tool, part of the Australian flag, etcetera."

"I don't see it."

Greg stepped behind Sara and pointed his arm across Sara's shoulder, so that she could easily follow his finger.

"There, the four stars Alpha, Gamma, Delta, and Beta form a cross and you can tell it's the right constellation when you see Epsilon, which is a smaller star not part of the cross, but midway between Alpha and Delta. Do you see it now?"

"You smell like B.O."

Greg shrugged. "You don't exactly smell like a basket of roses right now either you know."

Sara blushed, though it was hard to see with only moonlight illuminating their surroundings. "I think I see it…is it kind of on its side?"

"Yep, you've seen it. Do you want to know where home is?" he asked, his voice becoming softer.

"Umm…sure…"

Greg grinned and stepped up to Sara's side.

"Alpha is the one below Epsilon, you see it?"

Sara nodded. "One of the brighter ones?"

"Yep, that points south, meaning—"

"Meaning that home is in that direction." Sara finished, pointing to her left.

"Right…home is that way."

Greg's grin was gone as he and Sara gazed north.

"I don't think we'd ever be able to see this many stars back in Vegas." Sara said softly, turning her gaze upwards again, taking in the marvel.

"Definitely not," Greg stated.

"Hey, what about those two other cross looking things?" Sara said, pointing higher in the sky to the right.

"Those?" Greg followed her finger. "Oh, the one closest to the true cross is called the Diamond Cross. And the further one away is called the False Cross. You can tell the difference because the true cross is the smallest and brightest, and the Diamond and False Crosses have no Epsilon star."

Sara took a long look then turned back to the Southern Cross.

"When did you become an expert on constellations Greg?"

Greg shrugged, "I was in Astronomy Club during middle school, as a sort of hobby. And when I found out we were going to Australia, I did a bit of refreshing."

"Hmm…" Sara mumbled, for lack of a better answer.

"So…do you have any hobbies?"

Sara smirked, "Uh, no. No I don't."

"Not one?"

"I listen to the police scanner."

"That's not a hobby, that's part of being a workaholic and insomniac at the same time."

Sara's smirk turned into a smile and she looked back up at the sky. Greg looked back up too.

"Did you see that?" Greg suddenly declared, pointing upwards.

"What?"

"Shooting star!"

"I missed it."

"Just wait…I'm sure another one will show up…"

They held their breath for a whole thirty seconds, before Greg's hand shot out again.

"There!"

"I see it!"

The sparkling star shot across the sky, and faded out after five seconds of sparkling.

"Wow…" Sara sighed. She folded her arms across her chest as a small smile showed.

"Make a wish." Greg said.

Sara looked at him with an eyebrow cocked, "What?"

"Shooting star, close your eyes and make a wish."

"Um…all right."

Sara took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, thinking. What to wish for, what to wish for? So many things…the most obvious would be to get them off of this island. Or maybe another would be that Lauren and Matt's parents were still alive. Or even better, that she woke up and this had all just been--

Suddenly she felt something touching her left cheek, turning her head, and two seconds later before she could do anything, she felt something on her lips, another set of them. Startled, Sara opened her eyes to find Greg there, pulling away.

"Uhh…I, Greg, I don't…I…" She was at a loss for words. She wasn't even sure of what had occurred it had happened so fast. "What was that?"

"I believe…that was my wish."

"Umm…Greg, I'm…I'm not, I'm not…ready. I'm not ready for a relationship, right now."

Greg shrugged and turned away. "No worries. I just wanted my wish."

Sara frowned, and looked apologetic, "I'm not ready. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. I got my wish anyway, I didn't want too much just yet. So what did you wish for?" Greg asked her, throwing her a sideways glance.

"Er…nothing yet…I didn't have time to decide."

Greg smirked. "Well, I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed. You can stay until you spot another shooting star and you can make your own wish. G'Night."

Sara paused as Greg walked away.

"Goodnight!" she called after him after a moment.

She turned back around and sighed. What had just happened? Had that really just happened?

Sara sighed again and shook out her hands to release excess anxiety, and in an attempt to get rid of the goose bumps covering her arms. She gazed upwards at the Milky Way and the Southern Cross, and then, just beyond the Northern tip of the cross, another shooting star soared past and disappeared just as quickly has it had come.

Sara huffed through the side of her mouth and folded her arms.

"Make a wish Sara…"

* * *

"Sawa,"

Sara turned over and let out a sigh, still sleeping.

"Sawa…"

"Uggh…"

"Hey! Sara!" It was somebody else's voice.

Sara opened an eye and spotted somebody's bare foot.

"What, Catherine?"

"Breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Sara sat up and spat some sand out of her mouth. Her mouth was very dry and her tongue felt swollen. The morning sun was blaring down on her face, which stung slightly. She was probably sunburned. "I'd prefer something to drink…"

"Just leave it up to Mr. Survival," Catherine muttered, bending down and handing Sara a coconut shell full of water. "He stole Ecklie's shirt, tied it to his waist, and went walking through the forest. The shirt sucked up tons of water."

"And Ecklie sweat…" Sara grimaced, looking at her reflection in the water.

"It tastes fine, just so you know." Catherine said. "Drink it and you'll feel better."

"If I die from this my ghost is going to haunt you for the rest of your life…" Sara muttered jokingly, tipping the water up to her mouth and drinking. She paused after a sip and looked back into the cup.

"Feeling queasy?" Catherine asked. Sara responded by drinking the rest.

"Nope."

"Good."

"What did you say about breakfast?" Sara asked as Lauren climbed into her lap.

"Mr. Survival, again," Catherine stood with her hands on her hips, a look of fake disappointment on her face. "Look at what he's done," Catherine pointed at the bonfire and Sara turned to look. Greg was sitting there, poking at something in the flames with a stick.

"What?"

"He's making us lobster!" Catherine said, smiling.

"Oh…lobster huh?" Sara said, not nearly as enthusiastic. She tried to conceal a lip curl as she turned back to the bonfire.

"What, don't you at least eat fish?" Catherine asked, her smile fading.

"Well…not really…"

"Sara, this is a life and death thing here. It's just one lobster tail."

Sara swallowed, gazing into the flame.

"I don't eat animals." she said quietly.

"Sara, maybe you should consider becoming a lacto-ovo-pesco-vegetarian." Greg muttered, poking the flames again.

"I don't eat animals!"

"Do you drink milk?" Greg asked.

"Yes."

"Do you eat eggs?"

"Yes."

"Do you eat fish?"

"No."

"You're already a lacto-ovo-vegetarian! Add the 'pesco' and you're all set. Besides, these things don't even count as fish…they're crustaceans."

Sara still looked uncertain as Greg began to push out a couple lobster tails wrapped in a giant leaf.

"I…"

"One bite?" Greg prompted, walking over to other side of the bonfire and pulling the tails out further with the stick. At the edge of the fire pit, Greg reached in and pulled the food out further. He pulled the leaves away revealing the two delicious tails.

"Greg, that looks delicious, even without any butter. I'm starving." Catherine said, bending down in the sand next to Greg and picking up one of the tails.

"One bite, Sara." Greg repeated.

"I can't."

Greg sighed then picked up the second tail and handed it to Matt who was standing patiently by his side. He then took out the second pair of tails and handed one to Ecklie, and then turned to Lauren and Sara.

"Here you go Lauren," Greg said, holding out the lobster tail.

"What is that?" Lauren asked, peering cautiously at the food.

"It's called lobster."

Lauren's lips curled, "I don't like it."

"Not you too!" Greg cried, hanging his head, "Has Sara poisoned you?"

"No." Lauren said simply.

"Hmm…"

"Greg, don't worry. We'll just go find some more coconuts to eat."

"Okay, don't do anything stupid like get shot by the crazy pig-man, okay?"

"Okay," Lauren responded as Sara stood up. Lauren grabbed the woman's hand and they walked away to the forest.

* * *

"Okay Lauren…do you know how they got those coconuts down from there?" Sara asked the little girl who was staring up at the palm tree, wide-eyed.

"No…" she whispered.

Sara looked up at the trees, wiping more sweat from her forehead. It was mid-morning and the temperature was already stifling. Maybe she'd be used to it considering Las Vegas, but the humidity was murder.

"Well, Greg just shook the tree, right?" Sara said. It felt like she was talking to herself, even though she was obviously talking to Lauren. She stepped up to the tree, wrapped her arms around its trunk and shook it. Three or four coconuts fell from the top of the tree, and one of them fell on Sara's head.

"Ow…" Sara muttered, rubbing the back of her head as her eyes began to water. "That really hurt." Lauren was giggling hysterically, clapping her hands together.

"Oh, yeah, laugh all you want." Sara said cynically, though she smiled afterwards. "That _really_ hurt."

"That was _funny_." Lauren laughed.

"Oh really?"

"Uh-huh." Lauren smiled and walked up to Sara. "Are we going to play doctor again?"

Sara chuckled that time.

"No, it's not that bad."

"I'm hungry."

"That's what the coconuts are for. Grab a couple."

"Okay…" Lauren bent down and picked up one of the nuts.

"Let's head back…" Sara said, picking up the other three coconuts and nudging Lauren gently along the trail.

"Do you know the coconut song?" Lauren asked as they walked.

"Umm…I think so…is it the one with three coconuts in a row or something?"

"The lime coconut song?" Lauren repeated. "It was on the radio."

"Oh. _That_ coconut song."

"Yeah!" Lauren was smiling again.

"Yes, I know that song."

"Sing it!"

"Er…uhh…I don't think so."

"Aww, why?" Lauren's smile vanished and she began to pout as they walked up the slope that led past the cave.

"Because…I don't want to sing."

"Please?"

"Lauren, why?"

"Because I want to sing it."

"Then sing it."

"You too!"

"No."

"Sing it!" Lauren whined.

"Lauren, I don't want to."

"Sing it, please!"

Sara shook her head, and Lauren sat down in the mud.

"Lauren!"

"Sing it."

"No!"

Lauren then dunked the coconut in the mud next to her. Sara huffed and bent down by the little girl, her eyes narrowed.

"Do you really want me to sing it?"

"Yes." Lauren beamed.

"Fine." Sara picked Lauren out of the mud and set her on her feet. Then she began to sing soft and low. "Brother bought a coconut; he paid it for a dime. His sister had another; she paid it for a lime." She paused, then said "Lauren, you should know this part. I'm not singing it alone."

"She put the lime in the coconut and drank them both up. She put the lime in the coconut and drank them both up." they chorused softly, walking through the foliage before the cave. "Called the doctor, woke him up, and said Doctor, is there nothing I can take?"

"Doctor!" Lauren repeated in her off-key voice.

"To relieve this belly ache."

"Doctor!"

"Oh crap."

Sara stopped in her tracks, the coconuts toppling from her arms as she stood at the very edge of the forest. If she had taken one more step, she would have been back on the beach but something terrifying had caught her eye and caused her heart to stop.

"Uh-oh…" Lauren said, looking at the dropped coconuts. "Sawa dropped her coconuts…"

Sara pulled Lauren and herself over behind a tree.

"Who's there?" came a gruff voice from beyond the trees.

Sara's breath quickened and every soft exhalation she made sounded as if it were as loud as a freight train. Lauren turned to Sara and said, "Who is that?"

Sara held a shaky finger to her lips.

"I said who's there?" the man yelled. He sounded old, but not elderly. His voice was deep, and it flowed like syrup, thick and drippy, but it wasn't nearly as appealing.

Sara gulped.

"Hey, no whispering!" he snapped at somebody other than Sara, causing her to realize that the other's were hostages, or at least trapped. "Whoever is there, get out here now or I'll shoot the boy!"

Sara's breath caught in her throat, and she held the back of her hand to her mouth to hold back any noises of fear.

"Don't!" It was Catherine's voice, and she sounded heartbroken. "Don't shoot him! Sara! Get out here, _please_!"

Sara gulped down tears and picked Lauren off the ground. Trying to keep her knees as steady as possible, Sara staggered out from behind the trees onto the scene. Catherine, Greg, and Ecklie stood lined up next to the fire, looking at Sara, but facing a man that Sara wouldn't ordinarily label as anything more than a mere drunk.

He was plump, with a potbelly, dressed in faded jeans and tennis shoes. His shirt was stained with mud and the baseball cap he was wearing was worn around its rim. His cheeks were covered with heavy stubble, and his eyes were red and puffy. But what Sara was concerned the most about now, was the rifle he had aimed at Matt's head.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about the cliffie! But again, it's all pieces of a puzzle Greg/Sara was one piece, Matt with a rifle to his head is another piece.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

"Get over there," the man growled. His arm was outstretched, his hand grasping Matt's shoulder, the rifle barrel to the boy's head.

"Okay," Sara gulped, trying hard to remain calm, her eyes fixed on Matt whose knees were shaking, his lip trembling. She sidestepped over towards the other three, Lauren resting on her hip. "J-Just don't shoot him." Sara stammered.

"Get!" He moved the gun barrel from Matt's head for a split second to wave it at Sara, who scampered quickly over into position, her breath catching in her throat. "There…that's better, like a lineup." A smile crept across his face, revealing teeth that were beginning to yellow. "Now that everybody's here," The man shoved Matt's shoulder, causing the boy to stumble forward and run to hide behind Catherine and Greg.

"Now…I know _one_ of you…" he muttered, his gaze shifting around at them all. "But I'm not so sure about the rest." He narrowed his eyes, examining each of them in turn. "Let's start with you," He pointed the rifle at Catherine. "What's your name?"

Catherine stood straight, her head raised very slightly. She took in a deep breath, then said, "Catherine Willows." She did not blink as the man stared her in the eye, and she did not shift when his gaze drifted.

"Well Catherine, is he yours?" He nodded at Matt, cowering under Catherine's protective arm.

"No,"

The man bent down to Matt's level and tilted his head. "Where is your Mommy, kid?"

Matt looked away, not saying anything.

"Leave him alone," Catherine snapped, "I don't know who you are, what you're doing, or how the hell you got here, but leave him alone!"

He straightened up, his attention on Catherine once more. "Feisty," he stated simply. He rubbed his stubbly chin with his forefinger and thumb then said, "I'll tell you who I am, as soon as I figure out who you all are. Just gimme a minute. You?" He continued using the weapon as a pointer as he waved it in Sara's direction.

"Sara," she said quietly.

"And the girl?"

"Lauren."

"Hmm…are they yours then?"

"No,"

He sauntered over directly in front of them, one hand behind his back, the other carrying the gun. He planted his feet evenly, then took the gun barrel and put it directly under Sara's chin.

"Who are the kids related to?"

Sara's breath came in shudders, and her lower jaw trembled.

"Th-Their parents were on t-the plane."

"Good. Now answer this, what do you work as?"

"I'm a-an analyst. I…er…analyze things to help…just, help the community." For some reason she felt the need to be unspecific. Maybe it was the gun to her head, but she was definitely feeling the need to be unspecific.

"Uh-huh…so in other words, you're a CSI?"

Sara gulped. Then said lowly, "Yes."

"And what about Catherine?"

Sara turned her eyes toward Catherine, who was watching them carefully, her mouth closed and her nostrils flaring slightly, as though she were trying to steady her breathing.

"Uh-uh-uh…" the man muttered, pushing the gun harder into Sara's chin. "You're talking to me, not her. Is she also a CSI?"

"Yes."

"And who's the younger man?"

Sara's eyes fleeted to Greg who seemed to be standing on pinpricks, ready to act at any second, should the opportunity present itself. Then she remembered not to do so and she quickly looked back at the man.

"Greg…"

"And does he work with you?"

"Y-Yes."

He narrowed his muddy eyes at her, then asked in a low voice, "Do you have a stutter? Or do I scare you?"

Sara didn't answer as the man pulled the gun off of her skin. She breathed a sigh of relief and took in another shuddering breath.

"I'm going to tell you a little bit about me now, and maybe a certain someone can help me out." He glanced pointedly in Ecklie's direction, sending everybody's mental gears turning. Of course, it was _Ecklie's_ fault.

"Let's see…where to begin…where to begin…Let's start with the Jen Franklin case, shall we? Do you know about that case Catherine? Sara? Greg? I know Conrad knows about it. He's quite the expert on it."

Ecklie was not looking at the man. His hands were on his hips, his head hanging.

"Now, do you remember the evidence you convicted the 'murderer' on? Do you? A single hair, just one hair and BAM! Death penalty for Andrew Porter, wasn't it? But don't forget, there was more evidence than that, wasn't there? Eyewitness accounts, Andrew going into Jen's house with some flowers. He came running out on his on own, no flowers, no Jen, isn't that right?"

The man paused and took in a small breath, running his index finger up and down the barrel.

"And what was she shot with? A…rifle...I believe?" He leered at Ecklie's flushing face. "And didn't Andrew's house have a gun case in the garage? Locked up nice and tight, only his fingerprints on and in it? And don't forget, those footprints of his in the blood pool. Didn't he leave his footprints in the blood?"

He was obviously expecting Ecklie to respond, though he did not.

"Well? Answer!_ Isn't that right?_"

Slowly, Ecklie nodded.

"Good…well, let's see…so at my brother's trial, you slaughtered him. Hair, witnesses, the weapon, the footprints. And he was convicted to the death penalty for the brutal shooting of Jennifer Franklin, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Ecklie said stiffly.

"And he got the needle on the 21st of January three years ago, didn't he?"

Again, Ecklie replied with a 'yes' through clenched teeth.

"But of course, now you know. You were wrong. Even though you looked so confident up on that witness stand, you were all wrong. Andrew Porter? I think not. It was Dan Porter. Before Andrew went to lovely Jennifer's house that night, I had a little proposition to make with Jen dear."

"And what would that be?" Ecklie snapped.

"Uh-uh…I recommend not speaking unless I ask you to." He raised the rifle up to Ecklie's face, and when he spoke again his voice broke in several places. "I shot Jen, after she refused my offer to leave my brother. Straight through the eyes." He placed the edge of the gun right in between Ecklie's eyebrows. "Right there. And her brains flew everywhere. And then my brother came to the door. I let him in. He saw Jen, and ran to her. I'm sure that's how the hair fell. His footprints through the blood,"

He lowered the gun and Ecklie let out a heavy breath.

"Now the rest is simple, and perhaps if you had bothered with me, this," He gestured at their surroundings, "Would not have needed to happen…I would hope you remember the event. After court let out, and the defense had me as a witness saying oh how my brother loved Jen, and how he would never hurt her and that he hated guns. But the jury didn't listen, did they? They only heard _you_."

He glared at Ecklie through narrowed eyes, rubbing the gun barrel again.

"Now after court, do you remember? I ran up behind you and asked you, 'Is there anything I can do to help bail him out? Anything to get him only jail instead of death? Anything?' and do you remember what you said to me?"

Ecklie slowly shook his head.

"_Nothing_! You ignored me completely because you were too busy talking to the press! Too busy explaining how my little brother killed his girlfriend! And then do you remember what happened? After getting fed up with you ignoring me, I shouted after you. Do you remember?"

Ecklie shook his head again.

"Pig!"

Dan's eyes looked crazed, his hands clenching tightly to the rifle. His shoulders heaved as he tried to steady his breathing.

"I wanted to put it behind me. After attending my brother's execution I left. I moved to Hawaii. Restarted my car dealership. Bought a ramshackle little house to live in with enough lawn for an airstrip and my own small airplane, for a hobby. Took piloting lessons. Continued to practice with guns, sharp shooting etcetera. I wasn't even planning to use the skills to do anything. I picked them up as a hobby, to distract my mind. And when I found out about your little Australian seminar, I knew that I could finally get my revenge. Finally, after a whole three years I would be able to get my revenge.

I spent months planning, calculating the speed of your airplane, your flight plan, and then I spent hours counting the number of planes flying overhead Hawaii. Do you know how painstaking that was? And all because I wanted you to pay. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe I still am. But really, it was all worth it when I followed your airplane and shot it, once, twice. I thought you were dead. I was glad you were dead. But there was a storm coming from the northeast. I couldn't head back to Hawaii because I knew that the airplane had communicated with them, informing them about the unidentified aircraft. I would have been arrested.

So I landed on this island. Cleared a mighty good path through some trees, but I was all right. I felt like I had accomplished something. I had succeeded in killing the one person that I thought could help me, but refused to even acknowledge me."

They were growing uncomfortable. He kept talking about killing Ecklie, wanting to kill Ecklie. What was he planning to do with them now?

"I had finally found my new life. I could live on this island, live off the land. I had a gun, I could survive. I wasn't stupid. There was no law here, I wouldn't be arrested or anything. But when the storm died out, and I went out for something to eat, how do you think I felt? I see a boar, just waiting to be cooked over a fire, and what should happen? I shoot it, and I hear somebody scream! Who screamed?"

He pointed the gun at each of them.

"Lauren did." Sara finally said.

"Now why did you scream Lauren? Am I scary?" Dan asked, walking over to Lauren and putting on a baby voice. "Do you think I'm scary Lauren?"

"Shut up, asshole." Lauren said, raising her head and sticking out her lip. Sara tried as best she could to turn her chuckle into a coughing fit.

Dan's face darkened. "Boy, you've got a colorful vocabulary don't you, Lauren?"

"Like hell." Lauren responded, causing Sara to sputter on a laugh once more.

Dan's face snapped to hers. "Do you think that's funny?"

Sara shook her head, keeping her lips pursed and raising her head. She was taller than him, by a whole head.

"I think you found that funny."

She swallowed and stayed silent. Dan glared at her for a minute, then returned to his long yarn.

"So Lauren screamed and I ran for it, because if this island wasn't deserted, I was in trouble. But then I discovered, after hiding in some trees, that there were at least three castaways on this island. Catherine, you're a mother? Leslie was it?"

"Lindsey," Catherine said angrily.

"I was hoping you and Sara would go at it. I could have used some entertainment, but I knew I had to hide farther away. So after that…hmm…what happened next…I believe what happened next was Conrad decided to go for a little walk by himself in the unknown, later that day. He thought an animal was chasing him, but it was really me, wanting to give him a few last words before he died. But when he landed in that quicksand, I thought that I should just leave him to the long and painful death ahead. This was also a bad idea. Because who should come along but Ecklie's loyal team, who worked together to save the day."

"We're not—" Sara began, but Dan swung the rifle towards her again.

"Don't speak unless you are spoken to."

She gulped down her words.

"What else…yes, while you were working at getting him out of the quicksand, I went to your little hut to gather up my hunting trophy and leave a little hint, to make myself heard. I'd have hoped you would have remembered, and that I had scared you, but you were clueless, weren't you Conrad? You had no idea."

Dan took in a deep breath.

"Before I left I plugged up your water supply and smashed all of your food. And yet you defied me, lobster and walking through the forest collecting water from the plants? You're quite the survivor Greg. And a romantic. Under the stars, the southern cross, where home is? I would have bothered to kill you and Miss Sara then as I watched from the bushes, but it would have been too easy, and what is the point of killing you if I'm haven't killed Conrad first? I want to be frightening. I want to look like a suspect, and that just doesn't work in nothing but moonlight. I'm on my wits end, here! And here I am now, crazy old me, instilling fear in all of you. Are you scared?" He aimed his gun towards Ecklie. "Are you all scared?"

They nodded slowly.

"Well, you're not scared enough. I want to see you really scared. I want you to have to endure the knowledge of 'the end is near' just like my brother did!"

A crazy looking grin spread his mouth wide as he moved the gun over his shoulder, like a soldier.

"I'm sure you're all aware; there is no way off this island." He smirked evilly at them, then lowered the gun from his shoulder, as if he wasn't quite sure which way was the most comfortable way to hold it. "Conrad, I believe it fit that you lead the way. I want to keep my eye on you all from behind. We're going that way," Dan pointed along the shoreline Sara had followed on her walk a couple nights ago. "I'll give you directions. Get moving."

Again he ushered them along with the threat of a bullet, Ecklie first, Greg, Matt, Sara and Lauren, Catherine, and Dan following in that order.

"Follow the shoreline." Dan commanded from the rear of the procession.

Ecklie did so slowly, walking just a few yards away from the curling, crystalline waters. A few scattered clouds passed by, shielding them all from the sun at random moments, though the heat and humidity were both high. Soon they neared a broad, sand-covered corner of the island and continued to follow the trail of beach as they were ordered. When they turned the corner however, they came across a breakage in the sand. It was instead replaced by a wide stone pathway, leading upwards slightly, trees growing along its left side. Along its right side, waves crashed against a cliff.

"Go up there." Dan ordered, using the rifle once more as a pointer. Ecklie stepped up to the cliff and began to walk the slightly steep slope up it. It narrowed and widened alternately, as if it had been randomly chiseled away. Greg gazed over the edge a few times as they ascended, catching sight of the crashing waves against boulders far below. Seaweed draped the rocks, and a few seabirds, squawking amongst themselves.

"And we're here." Dan declared. He had placed the gun against his shoulder again, with a shoulder strap. He spread his arms wide to show off where they found themselves, a small plateau at the top of the slope.

It was the highest point of the island, only a few feet lower than the tops of the trees running along it. They could see the bonfire, billowing a dark gray rather than black smoke now. They could see the ocean on the opposite end of the island, more waves curling beyond a layer of trees.

"Pretty isn't it?" Dan said, "Not for long. Soon it'll be the home of lots and lots of death. I want you to line up, if you will." He pulled his gun down, once more, causing the group to straighten into a horizontal line like they had been before. "Are you still scared? Say you're still scared."

Again, the nodded their heads up and down.

"Good…I enjoy making people think I'm frightening. It's an adrenaline rush. Now how are we going to start this out…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I want you to run. That's how I want this to start out. I want you to run as far and as fast as you can. I want you to try to get away from me. You won't. Like I said, there is no way off this island."

"Then what's the point of running?" Greg snapped, "You're just going to end up shooting us anyway!"

Instead of raising his gun like he had at Sara and Ecklie, Dan turned his head to the side and examined Greg for a minute.

"You want to know why you should run?" Dan stepped straight up to Greg, glaring him in the eye, his pupils an endless vortex of black, pure craziness, or pure evil, anyone could choose. "Because…if you don't…" He took a sidestep to Greg's left so he was in front of Sara and Lauren "Because if you don't, something very, very sad will happen to an innocent somebody who has sadly found themselves in the middle of this problem. Give me the girl."

Sara's mouth remained in a grim, straight line, and she only clutched Lauren tighter.

"Give me the girl, or I will only take her myself."

Sara remained firm, Lauren's face buried into her tangled mass of curly hair. Dan sighed heavily then muttered, "Women, they're so stubborn. First Jen, now you?" He suddenly shot out, grabbing Lauren by the armpits and pulling her roughly out of Sara's grip.

"What are you going to do?" Catherine shouted.

"I figure, if you're not going to run, this will be a little bit too gruesome for a little girl to see. I'll make sure she doesn't have to watch her darling Sara have her brains splattered all over the ocean."

"Let go asshole!" Lauren shouted, kicking her feet hard as she could with Dan's right arm tightly across her chest. "Put me down! Put me down!" she screamed, her face scrunched up and tears beginning to pour. "Put me down! _Sawa!_"

"_Stop it _you bastard!" Sara cried.

Dan made an 'ooh' shape with his mouth. "Naughty, naughty. You shouldn't swear in front of the children."

"Put me down you bastard!" Lauren cried.

"See, this is why. You have a little girl using words much too grown-up for her."

"Put her down!" Greg yelled.

"All right. I'll put her down." Dan backed away even further, still holding tightly to Lauren's struggling form."Right here. I'll put her down, right here." He stepped over to the very edge of the cliff. "Right here."

"_Don't!_" Sara screeched, taking a step forward.

"Uh-uh…" Dan swung the gun down from his shoulder and aimed it at Sara. "Don't do that. Who knows what could happen."

"Sawa…" Lauren whimpered, going slightly limp.

"Please…" Catherine whispered. "Don't, she doesn't need to die."

"Au Contraire, she has found—Ye_ow_!"

Lauren dropped from Dan's arm as he crumpled the ground, clutching his groin and gasping. But she had been dropped too close to the edge, and slipped off the side, only to clutch desperately to the rock face, her feet scrambling to gain footing that was not there.

"_Lauren!_" Sara screeched, throwing herself at the sobbing girl, catching her around the waist and pulling her up to the cliff again all within a couple of seconds. She stood with a hysterically sobbing Lauren on her hip once more, only to freeze when she found the gun facing her head, bent from an angle as Dan continued to writhe on the ground.

"Run," he gasped from below. "I want you to run. I want you all to feel like there is no way out, just like my brother did. Because there is no way out."

Sara gulped under threat of death and turned to the other four, Matt, and Ecklie were already sliding down the very steep hillside, looking over their shoulder at the scene they had left behind them. Catherine was bent in a way that showed she was prepared to sprint off after the other three, but she was facing Sara, mouthing the words, '_I have a plan…'_. And Sara knew…they would have to run.

* * *

**A/N: I had a more evil cliffhanger planned for this chapter, but I figured you had already endured enough heart attacks by now, what with Matt having a rifle to his head and Lauren stumbling off the side of a cliff, only to thankfully be rescued by Sara. Just so you know, this will be the only story I'll be working on until it's finished.(I'm juggling 2 as of now) I kinda sorta felt bad about that cliffhanger I left you guys with. ;) Happy reading, as always! Also, I thought it was sooo funny when Lauren swore at that guy. Too cute! (Lauren is based off of my 3-year-old cousin, Maggie, cutest kid in the world!)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Sara still stood frozen with the gun facing her. Did he mean for her to run? Or was she keeping her and Lauren there to make the others run? Suddenly interrupting her thoughts, Dan doubled over, lowering the gun as he mustered up the strength to stand up. Sara took the chance and dashed over to the precipice that merged seamlessly with the trees, Catherine springing into action at the drop of Sara's foot.

With Lauren pressed into her shoulder and Dan struggling to his feet behind them, Sara and Catherine met at the horribly steep rock face at the same time. It was almost a straight drop to the forest floor below. The wall was made up of rock and the occasional plant grew on small patches of dirt on the descent. Greg, Ecklie, and Matt were just reaching the foot of it, looking up at them.

"All right, you and Lauren go first Sara." Catherine muttered, throwing a backwards glance at Dan who was slowly easing himself into a standing position, his face scrunched in pain.

Sara nodded and turned around, preparing to climb down.

"Okay, Lauren, try to settle down and listen to me, okay?" Sara said, soothingly, backing into a kneeling position and reaching her right foot over the edge. Catherine abandoned her plan and began to climb down beside her. Lauren sniffed pitifully and kept her fingers clamped around Sara's neck.

"You're going to have to hold on really, really tight, all right Lauren? I can't hold you climbing down."

Lauren nodded and even further tightened her vice grip on Sara.

"Okay…" Sara said it under her breath, more to herself than anyone else. "Let's go."

Catherine had already climbed carefully halfway down the cliff, Greg, Ecklie, and Matt firmly planted on the bottom. Sara completely released her hold on Lauren; her elbows hooked to the top of the cliff, as she made certain her feet were firmly planted on the slippery precipice. Dan was almost completely standing, though he was still doubled over, seeming distracted by the good kick Lauren had landed.

With a deep breath, Sara released one hand from the plateau and grabbed a rock in front of her. Then carefully, she pulled her other arm down. Catherine was now almost at the bottom, systematically checking her footing and then reaching further down for another rock.

Sara cautiously continued down, Lauren firmly locked onto her. Then suddenly, a gunshot exploded through the air, causing Lauren to jump drastically. The movement caused Sara to lose her grip. Frantically, she flailed around to regain her handhold on the rocks but to know avail and she fell backwards.

"Gotcha!" Greg called from below, and Sara slammed into him as she came downwards, knocking the wind out of both of them when she made impact.

"Are you okay?" Catherine asked standing above them and lifting a panicked Lauren out of Sara's slack grip. Sara rolled off of Greg, trying to take deep breaths and calm her furiously beating heart, as well as catch her breath. Greg just laid there, his chest rising up and down.

"Help me up…" he finally managed, sticking his arm into the air. Catherine pulled him off the ground. He doubled over, still trying to catch his breath.

"Jeez Sara, maybe you are a little on the heavy side…" he joked, but she wasn't listening.

"Run!" It was Catherine who shouted that, taking off through the endless span of trees before them.

"Wha—" Greg began, but he was answered by another gunshot and a small cloud of dirt flying up near his ankle as a bullet zoomed past. That sprung him, Ecklie, Sara, and Matt back into survival mode, sprinting after Catherine as she zigged and zagged through the coverage of the trees, with seemingly no sense of direction.

"Cath," Sara panted, hurdling a felled tree trunk and ducking under some branches. "Where are you going?"

"You'll see! Just keep running!" Catherine continued, and this time she seemed slightly more certain. She was following a slightly faded dirt animal trail, Lauren bouncing on her hip.

They followed her directions, clearing the obstacles in their way. Suddenly, Catherine slid to a halt and turned abruptly. The others did the same and found themselves standing on top of the cave.

"I know where we're going, I know where we're going," Catherine repeated, still scampering through the forest. She slid down the papaya hill, the others following her, and she headed straight for a row of bushes before turning abruptly right and zigzagging through the trees, following a faint trail.

"Catherine," Greg said, but he was interrupted by Sara snapping. "Greg, save your breath for running!" for they had just heard another distant gunshot.

"Stop!" Catherine suddenly shouted, sliding to another halt. She had stopped at the site of two logs piled on top of each other and another one broken in two. "Okay…now my plan's run out. I took us to the quicksand and…now there's no way to get across." She doubled over to catch her breath, then muttered, "Damnit…"

Ecklie stood there panting with Matt next to him, his breath coming in soft puffs. Sara stood with her hands on her hips, still trying to catch her breath after her fall. Greg however, was standing there, pondering something.

"I've got it. Sara, come here."

"What?" Sara asked, obeying him. Greg stood next to the two logs, waving Sara over to him.

"Tarzan and Jane." he said, reaching upwards and pulling down an especially thick vine. "You Jane," he stated gruffly before shoving the vine into Sara's hands.

"Greg, how do you expect—"

"Wrap it around your leg." Greg interrupted. Sara did so. "Now step up onto the log."

"What if I fall?"

Greg responded with a grin and he reached up onto the vine and pulled down as hard as he could.

"You won't fall, Jane. But…you might get your hands rubbed. This thing is kind of…prickly…"

Sara rolled her eyes and stepped cautiously onto the stack of logs.

"Ready?"

"Greg, I'm not—"

"GO!" Greg shouted as another gunshot sounded. He pushed Sara in the small of her back, causing her to stumble off the step. She tightened her grip on the vines, grimacing as the small barb-like dug rubbed against her palms, as she swung gracefully across the sand. When she reached the far end, she let go and landed on solid ground with another painful plop.

"My hands!" she shouted, raising her palms and looking sorrowfully at them. "They feel like I've just rubbed them with fiberglass!" She waved them in the air as she stood up.

"Who cares?" Catherine declared at the sound of another shot, stepping up onto the logs with Lauren on her hip. She did the same as Sara and jumped off the two logs, swinging forcefully over to the other side. She landed just as painfully on the ground as Sara did and when she pulled herself and Lauren up, she too was wincing in pain at the sight of bright red hands.

The shots were growing much closer and Matt swung across next. Ecklie followed him, and while the four were standing on the other side of the quicksand, whimpering and blowing on their pained hands, Greg prepared himself to swing across.

"Oh jeez, this does hurt." he said, gaining his footing on the ledge. He winced as he further tightened his grip on the vine, when suddenly, as he was swinging across he called out in pain, just as another shot echoed.

"Well it didn't hurt that bad!" Ecklie said, still blowing on his hands.

"No! It's not that! I got grazed!" Greg muttered through clenched teeth getting of the ground and holding his heel. Part of his sandal was torn off at a slightly downward angle, and with it, a small part of his ankle had been clipped by the bullet, blood streaming from it.

"We should keep running," Sara pointed out, shaking her hands in the air.

"Are you kidding? I can't run like this!" Greg said, gesturing at his heel.

Sara dropped the argument and looked back across the quicksand. Some of the plants far behind it were trembling.

"We should at least hide…" she said quietly. They glanced around them at the foliage cover, the rustling plants growing closer.

"Over here," Catherine whispered, stepping over to a rather tall tree, whose roots looked like a net, twisting and turning around each other into a mass. It was surrounded by several large fern plants which provided coverage. Sara, Ecklie, and Matt followed her, cautiously glancing back across the quicksand, half expecting Dan to pop out and open fire on all of them. Greg hobbled over to them, and they all hunkered down behind the bushes, waiting anxiously with their breath held.

Another loud shot echoed, causing Lauren to gasp and clap her hands to her ears and then bury her face into Catherine's shoulder. The woman rubbed her back soothingly, though she was just as anxious. And then another loud shot exploded in the air, and a small explosion of bark from the tree behind them caused Catherine to throw herself down from the roots on which she had been sitting.

"Holy…" she began but stopped when Dan's voice was heard.

"Come out, come out wherever you are. How did you get across the quicksand? Was it Mr. Survival again? Oh Greg…"

"This guy is crazy!" Ecklie hissed quietly. The others looked at him, giant 'Duh!' expressions on their face.

"Oh, who was that I heard? Conrad? Maybe…"

Again, they held their breath, their hearts beating a hundred miles a minute as they heard crunching plants underneath Dan's feet.

"Hmm…there appear to be no footprints following the trail leading over that way. Does that maybe mean…you're hiding?" He cackled quietly, coming closer, but still on the opposite side of the sand. "I'm going to kill all of you…do you know that the end is near? That you're going to die…isn't that a horrible thought? Oh look, a vine swinging slowly. Is that how you got across?"

Unseen to them, Dan scanned the forest before him, a vine swinging faintly before his face as he stood just next to the small stack of logs. Wheezing slightly from the run, he strapped the gun around his shoulder once more and reached out to the vine. Grabbing it, he tightened his grip on its rough surface, planted his feet on the logs, and jumped.

But he hadn't properly situated himself on the vine, and the fiberglass-like barbs rubbed against his skin. Unable to support his weight, his hands slipped, and before he could get across, he dropped into the quicksand.

Behind the bushes, they heard the 'kerplunk' of Dan plopping into the sand, and cautiously, Greg reached over and peaked through the leaves. Dan was immobilized, already having sunk in up to his waist. The gun draped over his shoulder, was partially emerged in the thick mixture, and Dan was waving his hands in the air, trying to cool down his burning hands.

"I think it's safe," Greg whispered to the others. "We can come out. The gun won't work, it's full of quicksand."

"Greg, are you sure? Last time we listened to you, _this_ happened." Sara held up her painfully red hands.

"Watch…" Greg stood up from behind the bushes, exposing himself full on.

"Greg! Are in you _insane_?" Catherine snapped, reaching out for Greg's arm but then remembering that her hands were basically useless. "Sit down!"

"No, look." Greg pointed out at the quicksand, his face somber. Dan was still sinking slowly, up to the middle of his stomach. He had dunked his hands in the quicksand to help with the burning sting of his hands, but his face was still scrunched with pain.

Catherine stood up next, and cautiously Sara did to. Matt stepped up to Greg's side, tears in his eyes from the pain on his little hands. Ecklie remained seated.

Dan narrowed his eyes at them and reached for his rifle, fumbling slightly with his sand covered and burning hands.

"You're dead," he said, narrowing his eyes. He aimed at them with the rifle; either craziness or hatred in his eyes, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

His mad grin faded into a frown and he pulled the trigger again, moving the rifle to Greg, Sara, Catherine, and back again. Still nothing. The rifle was useless.

"Throw the gun away," Greg ordered calmly. "It's only weighing you down."

"NO!" Dan shouted, pulling the trigger again, repeatedly. Still nothing happened. "_No!_" With a shout of rage, Dan pulled the gun down from his shoulder and threw it. It landed on the surface of the quicksand, and soon sunk into it.

"Let me die…" Dan moaned. "I'm hopeless. I'm a failure. Just leave me here."

"Tough luck, big guy. You've got to face the consequences." Sara said, trying to hide the smile threatening to show. "Attempted murder of six people, murder of more than eight people. Seven of those were first degree, and the last was…second degree?"

"Leave me alone." Dan spat, leaning backwards into the sand.

"Oh no you don't," Catherine said then quickly glanced around for a log of some sort. "You have to tell us where your plane is…" She discovered a small log off to the side of the sand, and with Sara and Greg's help, they lifted the felled tree up and over to the sand, horizontally. Then, they grabbed another nearby log and hoisted it over the first, using the pits of their elbows and knees to cradle it into position.

"Grab onto it." Catherine ordered.

"I told you to leave me alone." On his back, Dan sighed and closed his eyes, then mumbled, "Can't even kill six unarmed people on a frickin' deserted island…" Slowly, he began to submerge in the muck, the sand seeping around every line on his body.

"No!" Catherine snapped. She dipped the log downwards with the help of Sara and Greg, and quickly maneuvered it as best they could so it was touching Dan's side.

"Grab onto it Dan." Catherine ordered, more urgently.

"No…" His insanity seemed to be engulfing him, casting his voice into echoes as he sunk further into the quicksand.

"Man," Greg began, wincing as he held onto the log with his beet-red hands. "Don't you think that you should at least clear your brother's name or something? You killed Jen in Nevada, they have the death penalty; you'll probably die soon anyway."

"Greg!" Sara snapped.

"Come on Sara, I'm working on a way to stop him killing himself here!"

Dan had seemed to perk up slightly at Greg's comment, and had partially raised his head out of the sand.

"Andrew? Exempted?"

"They can't do that if you're dead, man." Greg winced again, then switched to holding the log level with his elbows.

Dan seemed to ponder that, his lower lip beginning to tremble. His face reddened and his crazed face suddenly tightened into a wavering frown. With a shuddering breath, he laboriously lifted his right arm out of the muck and hooked it over the end of the log. Then, with tears beginning to leave streaks in his dirty face, he raised his other arm and grabbed on fully. Wincing under the strain of his hurting hands, he managed to raise his head out of the mud, his ball-cap falling off into it.

"Push," Catherine said, but instead of pushing with her hands, she moved forward and laid her waist across the log's surface. Sara and Greg did the same, putting all their remaining strength out to lift the man out of the swampy mud. He grimaced as his body was slowly raised out of the pit, his entire backside covered with dripping mud.

"There, that wasn't so hard." Catherine panted, turning the log and pulling Dan onto the dry edge.

Dan said nothing, just sitting there, his lower jaw still quivering as he sat in the position of a man who had just lost everything he had ever come to live for.

"Get up," Catherine said quietly, letting the log go limp.

Dan did not move as Lauren, Matt, and Ecklie drifted out from behind the ferns and to them. Matt snuck his hand into Catherine's and hid behind her. Lauren did the same to Sara, though she seemed more curious than frightened. Ecklie trailed slowly closer to them, his face somber and nervous, hands shoved into his pockets. A light twitchy frown threatened to show on his mouth as he cautiously watched Dan, lying limp on the ground.

Catherine sternly inquired, "You said that you flew here in a plane…where is it?"

Dan suddenly seemed to spark to life. He sat up and let out a harsh cackle, wiping muck from his hands and arms.

"You don't actually expect to fly out of here?" He laughed again, shaking his head. "I would have thought you were smarter than that."

"Where is it?" Catherine repeated, even more authoritatively than before, not a single hint of amusement on her face, no emotion whatsoever other than hatred and disgust.

Dan's chuckles died out slowly and his shoulders sagged. He swiped off some mud from his pants, smirking softly, before he said, "It's destroyed. Nose crunched, wings torn off, tail bent; you won't be able to fly it." He scoffed and shook his head.

"Do you think the radio will still work?" Catherine pressed.

Dan's mouth turned downwards and he said nothing.

"Well?"

Her words were met with silence.

"Where is it?" Sara asked, trying to pry her hand out of Lauren's grip, for it stung too badly to hold hands.

Still, Dan said nothing. His mouth was set, locked with an invisible key.

"You're not going to talk to us, are you?" Sara said incredulously.

Dan's mouth broke into a leer then he began to hum a quiet, slow, nameless tune. Sara threw her hands up and let out a heavy exasperated sigh. Catherine and Ecklie glared at him and Greg's face was blank, except for his eyes, which seemed darker, as if in deep thought.

"Catherine, I've got an idea. Why don't you and Sara go up to that cliff? If trees were knocked down, you might be able to see it from up there." Greg said.

"Greg," Sara began to object, her back to them, arms folded in discontent. "We didn't see anything when we were up there." She turned around, frowning.

"That's because you weren't looking." Greg pointed out. "You were worried about getting your brains blown out by a madman."

"Come on Sara, I want to get as far away from this guy as possible." Catherine brushed past Dan, heading through the trees to the northeast. Matt trailed along after her, clinging to her side as they passed the man sitting on the ground. Sara sighed heavily, used her wrists to lift Lauren onto her hip, and took off after Catherine.

* * *

"So what was he talking about when he said Greg was a romantic? How could he know that? And what were you doing under the stars with Greg?" Catherine smirked slightly as she and Sara walked through the sand towards the cliff.

Sara blushed.

"It was nothing," she mumbled.

"Oh come on. It must have been _something_. What happened?"

Sara sighed and readjusted Lauren on her hip.

"I'm telling you it wasn't much…he woke me up and said he had to show me something. I followed him along the shore and we turned a corner and there had to be about a billion stars up there. He pointed out a few constellations, we saw a couple of shooting stars, the Milky Way, figured out what direction home was in, and then we went back to bed." Sara finished breathlessly as they met the cliff and began to walk up it.

Catherine's eyebrow was raised as Matt tagged along behind her.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"That's _really _it?"

Sara blushed harder and said nothing. A smirk crept across Catherine's face.

"What did he do?"

"Uhh…he made a wish?"

Catherine's expression was haughty, as if she thought she knew exactly what had happened.

"Please tell me he did something the kids can hear."

"Cath!" Sara exclaimed. "Of course he didn't do…that…"

"Hmm…so…what did he do?" Catherine looked away from Sara as they reached a narrowed part of the cliff and had to shift into single file in order to pass.

"It wasn't anything big…he just…when we saw a shooting star he told me to close my eyes and make a wish." Sara paused.

"_And?_" Catherine pressed as they began to near the very top.

"And then suddenly he kissed me, I opened my eyes, he pulled away, I told him I wasn't ready, and we went back to sleep." She said the sentence in one quick breath, then with Catherine's arrogant gaze on her, she changed the subject. "So what do you make of this…Dan Porter guy?"

Catherine shrugged, "He's an insane homicidal psychopath?"

"Close enough," Sara agreed. "And of course it had to be all Ecklie's fault."

Catherine sighed and her arrogant air drifted away, replaced with a slightly concerned frown. "Of course. Everything seems to be his fault, doesn't it?"

"I hate to say this…but I feel sorry for him." Sara admitted. "I mean…I think he might actually be human underneath that pompous, hard-headed, political shell."

Catherine opened her mouth, then closed it and said, "Yeah…"

They came to a stop at the top of the plateau, gazing out once more over the forest and sand.

"Is that it?" Catherine pointed out. She gestured over towards the complete opposite shore, where a void in the trees along the sand glared out at them, obvious now where it hadn't before.

"I…I guess it must be. I don't see anywhere else the plane could possibly be."

"Let's head back…there's no telling what Dan could do to Greg or Ecklie…"

She turned, Matt and Sara following.

* * *

Sara and Catherine returned about fifteen minutes later, the two children tagging along. Dan hadn't moved. Ecklie was leaning against a tree, and Greg was sitting on the ground by a bush, examining the small nick in his ankle.

"It's on the complete opposite of the island, near the shore. I can't believe we never went over and saw it or anything." Sara cried, setting Lauren on the ground next to Greg and seating herself. Catherine and Matt joined them.

"Do you think you could lead the way?" Greg asked, looking at both Sara and Catherine. They shared a look with each other, turned to Greg, and nodded.

"Get up Dan," Greg ordered, "We're going for a little walk."

"I don't think it's that far," Sara commented, lifting Lauren up again and beginning to walk the same way they had before, to the northeast. "It looked like it was just around the shoreline when we were standing up there."

Catherine agreed with a nod as they continued walking. First came Sara, Lauren, Catherine, and Matt, then Dan and Greg, and finally Ecklie.

"You know…" Dan began, drawing out his words as he stumbled over fallen foliage. "I didn't want to have to kill you all." That caused them to look back at him nervously. "I just…in order to kill Ecklie I would have had to take that whole plane down…and…well, don't you think that it would have been nice to put you all out of your misery?"

"We would have been rescued soon anyway," Sara snapped. "That bonfire was letting out plenty of smoke, and the weather conditions were clear enough for anyone from a rescue plane to see us."

Dan grunted as they continued through the brush.

"And Lauren, I'd like to apologize." Dan continued, "I underestimated you. You've got a good kick in those little legs of yours."

Lauren glared over Sara's shoulder, "Asshole…"

Dan chuckled.

"Cute…" he laughed.

"What exactly is it you're trying to do?" Catherine asked, turning her head over her shoulder with an eyebrow raised. "Acting friendly? For what, forgiveness? We stopped you from killing yourself. That doesn't make us 'friends'." She turned back around.

Dan shrugged. "You got a nice ass. And you're feisty, like Jen. You remind me of her."

Catherine exhaled heatedly, a flush creeping up her cheeks as she sped up.

"You both got nice asses." Dan commented.

A couple of minutes later, they were on the sandy shores, walking along it. They were heading to the northeast still, only along the shoreline. They turned the corner that Greg and Sara had passed to see the stars and continued walking. Seabirds were abundant along the shoreline and their brown speckled wings flapped as they took off into the air. Greg began to lag behind, wincing as the sand grated against his cut. Dan was between Greg and the two women now.

They neared the second corner, the one that would turn and lead them towards the airplane, perhaps their only way out.

"I need you two to tell me something…" Dan suddenly said, proposing the offer amiably. "Since I killed all those people on the plane in the middle of the ocean, would I be convicted for those murders in the Australian government, or the American?"

Sara and Catherine stopped in their tracks, pondering the question.

"We-well…I…er…I guess you would—" Sara began, but before she could finish, Dan suddenly began to sprint towards the forest.

"Hey!" Catherine shouted. She released Matt's hand and dived after Dan. She grabbed his right wrist in her hands, wincing, and tugged on him.

"Jen would have done the same." Dan commented, trying to get Catherine off of his wrist, prying at her fingers with his. "And look what happened to her." Then suddenly, he raised his right hand and let his fist fly smack into Catherine's face. A sickening crunch signaled the makings of a surely broken nose. Catherine's gasped and staggered backwards. Her eyes were scrunched, her hands plastered across her face, blooding seeping out around them.

Sara and Greg ran to her.

"Cath, are you—are you okay?" Greg asked fervently. Dan had disappeared into the trees.

"Dabit…" Catherine managed. She took down several deep gulps of air, then sat down in the sand. Blood began to drip from her hands and onto her pants and the sand.

"The plane should be right around that corner," Sara said, her face slightly panicked. "I'm going to go see if it has a working radio. Just leave Dan. He can't do anything more. Are you going to be all right Catherine?"

Catherine said nothing, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut with her hands holding her face.

Sara set Lauren down and took off running. The plane had to be there, just beyond the corner. God could only hope it had a working radio. She passed the corner and sure enough, plenty of splintered trees lay across the shore and perhaps metal pieces of an airplane. She continued running to the void and there it was, the front end of an airplane, its nose scrunched and its wings lying separated and useless at its side. Sara dashed up to the cockpit and thrust open the door. The front end was slightly smashed. A cooler sat in one of the two backseats and Sara was partially tempted to see what was inside, but half suspecting she would find takeout.

There was a set of headphones on the floor of the plane and Sara climbed into the pilot's seat. She reached down and placed the headphones over her ears. Hoping she was going to get this right, she searched for something that looked like something even close to a communication device. There was a small metal box apparently untouched by the crash in the dashboard in front of her. Biting her lip, Sara reached forward for a knob. She turned it and static filled her ears. A wide smile spread across her face.

"Perfect…uhh…hello?"

Nothing but more static. Sara turned the knob.

"H-Hello?"

A small increase in volume reached her and Sara gulped. "Hello? Is…is somebody there?"

A gargling voice filled the headphones and with a slight breath of relief at the voice of another human, Sara listened.

"Who is this?" the voice gargled.

"Er…S-Sara…I'm. I'm on this—"

"Sara? Is that you?" It was a different voice, but it was familiar.

"Brass?" Her breath caught in her throat and she smiled.

"Thank God you're all right. W-Where is everyone else? What survivors? Anybody?"

"Catherine and Greg, Ecklie, these two kids that were on the plane. That's it." Sara took in a deep breath. Not a time to start getting emotional. Stay level headed.

"Oh thank God…is-is anybody hurt?"

"Greg's got a cut on his arm that's mildly infected. I got attacked by a wild boar. Ecklie got pulled out of quicksand and might have a giant hickey, and Catherine just got her nose broken by a homicidal maniac."

"Oh God. I think Grissom mentioned something about that. Everyone's been looking for answers for the past four days."

Sara let out a small sigh of contentment. "I'm glad."

"Look, Sara, we just got out of Hawaii. We're heading towards the plane wreck, but we have no idea where you are. And-and how are you communicating with us in the first place?"

"It's the homicidal maniac's busted airplane. Thankfully the radio still works."

"Okay, Sara, do you have any possible way of telling us in what area you might be?"

Sara thought for a minute. North was…to her upper left…the nose of the airplane faced southwest…

"We're on a small island about two or three miles south southwest of the nose of the crashed airplane."

"Thank you. Sara, I'm going to disconnect. I want you to get out somewhere you can be seen. We're in one of those water-ski airplanes…whatever you call it…I'm so glad to here your voice. I really am. We were all so worried you were all dead."

"Thanks Brass…we have a bonfire going. Hopefully you'll see the smoke."

"10-4, over and out."

"Very funny."

Sara removed the headset and put it back on the floor. They were rescued. They…were…rescued. It sounded so wonderful. Sara took one final look around the plane's crushed inside, looking for anything that might be useful. She spotted a small white first-aid kit fitted onto the plane's wall and opened it. A strip of gauze, some hydrogen peroxide, band-aids, anti-itch cream, an icepack, and some Neosporin sat inside.

Smiling, she pulled them out and then turned to the cooler behind her. Inside of that were two bottles of water, a bag of potato chips, some sandwiches, and a beer. With a hint of regret, Sara tossed the beer bottle out of the cooler and replaced it with the first aid materials. With the cooler in tow, Sara stepped out of the airplane.

Now to get back to Catherine and Greg.

* * *

**A/N: Hallelujah! Another chappie, and if I'm correct, the longest yet...I think. Anyway, after this one there will either be**

**A) One more relatively long chapter**

**or**

**B) Two relatively short chapters**

**A is more likely. Happy reading:D Sorry about Catherine's nose...poor girl...gives painkillers :D This was Chapter 13, is it an unlucky chapter for me? Or is 13 not bad luck after all? Tell me!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Greg's face was anxious as he knelt down by Catherine's side, blurting out whatever comforting words came to mind.

"It won't be crooked when it heals! They'll fix it! I'm sure it's not that bloody or anything and you won't have any scars and it probably hurts way less than you think it does!"

But Catherine didn't seem to be listening to him as she sat in the sand with her hands clamped tightly over her face, her eyes scrunched tight.

"Is she okay?" Ecklie asked, his hands still sitting on his hips.

"Are you okay?" Greg repeated.

Catherine grudgingly replied through her hands, "Do!"

"Let me take a look at it," Greg prompted, reaching for Catherine's hands, but she refused to pull her them down. "Oh come on Catherine…I promise I won't laugh at it for being big and purple and bloody or maybe crooked."

One of her eyes opened and she glared out at Greg.

"Say dat agaid…"

"Cut it out."

Catherine rolled her eyes, then slowly lowered her hands from her face. Her mouth and lower nose were covered in blood; faint half-moon purple circles were beginning to form beneath her eyes. The bridge of her nose was slowly increasing, though it didn't look crooked.

"Well…it's not…that…bloody."

"Is id dat bad?" Catherine asked, leaning over and spitting out a glob of bloody spit.

"Naw…it's…it's just…bloody and…swollen…and…you've got black eyes starting…"

Catherine let out a heated sigh, "Dat b—"

"Uh-uh Cath, kids!"

Matt and Lauren had been standing next to each other, seeming unsure of what else to do.

Catherine huffed as best she could and put her hands back up to her face.

"I cad beliebe he did dat. I hobe he kills hibself."

"No you don't, you're just saying that because you're in pain and aren't thinking clearly." Greg said smugly, squatting down next to Catherine, still looking her face at different angles. "Sara might have found something in the airplane to take care of that for you. And hopefully our hands too…that was probably one of my worse ideas…"

Catherine glared at him.

* * *

Sara strode across the sand, a faint satisfied smile on her face. The foaming waves casting up on shore seemed so much more pleasant now, rather than the bars of a jail cell holding them all in. The loud calling of the seabirds sounded more thought-provoking and less obnoxious now that she knew they were going to be rescued soon. She reached the gently turning corner of the island, her stomach turning in excitement upon telling the rest of them the news. They would celebrate when they got back home. Who knew how just yet, but there was definitely going to be a celebration upon returning to civilization.

She took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm her squirming stomach. But something was beginning to feel different. A strange sixth sense feeling. But it was a thought of nonsense…probably a voice in the back of her head repeating one of Murphy's laws—anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

* * *

"Is Sawa back yet?" Lauren asked exasperatedly, sitting in Greg's lap and fiddling with the soft white sand on the beach.

"She should be…" Greg said. "She might have got distracted or something."

A stupid thing to say and he knew it as he said it. She had concentration skills that almost rivaled Grissom's. Almost.

"Greg…what could she hab gotted distracted by? Dere's barely adytid out here…"

"Well what do you propose?" Greg said raising his eyebrows. "Wait here while she's off stuck in quicksand or getting attacked by seagulls or being eaten by some jaguar or—"

"Will you cut that out?" Ecklie said. "That's not something we need to be thinking about…"

Greg responded with anxious silence.

* * *

The strange prickling on the back of Sara's neck was beginning to bother her. She was almost at the turn as she walked across the shoreline. What was wrong with her? She jogged a couple of steps, hoping to get rid of the feeling but it remained.

"This is ridiculous," she said aloud. She turned around, scoping the landscape behind her. "There's nothing there." She threw her hands up exasperatedly, letting out a scoff. "Stop fooling yourself."

"You're not fooling yourself."

The prickling feeling returned in all extreme intensity and Sara spun back around. Standing there, with a vine in his hand, was Dan, his face filled with an overload of some sort of rage or fear.

* * *

"I think we need to go find her…" Greg stated after fifteen more minutes had passed.

"I was just thinking the same thing myself." Ecklie said quietly. "That guy is still out there, you know."

"That's what I'm worried about…"

"Well then we should start—" Ecklie began, but he was interrupted by Matt shouting.

"Look! Lookit! An airplane! Look!" He was bouncing up and down, jabbing his little finger into the air. "Look at it! It's coming! It's going to save us!"

"Oh tank God…" Catherine breathed, a sort of rising feeling of elation filling her stomach.

"She must have managed to radio in!" Greg cried, beaming. "But…but then why isn't she back yet?"

The airplane was nearing them, a big silver body of metal zooming closer and closer. But it wouldn't be landing on the side shoreline where they were.

"Come on, it's landing in the front of the island." Greg stated. "They'll be able to help us find Sara…"

"Am I going to see my mommy and daddy now?" Lauren asked Greg as he stood and picked her up.

"Umm…Lauren, you'll find out." Greg mumbled, trying to divert her questions as he began to hike through the sand. Catherine took Matt's hand with one of her bloody ones, the other still clamped across her face. Ecklie trailed alone after them.

* * *

"Holy—" Sara began, gaping at Dan as he leered at her.

"Quiet!" he interrupted. He took a step forward and she took a step back, her palms beginning to sweat and her grip tightening on the cooler. "Did you radio in?" he asked in earnest.

Sara opened and closed her mouth, making no more sound than a couple of breathless croaks. She was telling her legs to run, but they wouldn't. They were planted. Dan reached out and grabbed her shoulders, causing her to drop the cooler into the sand.

"Did you radio in?" he asked, even more fervently.

"I-I…"

"_Did you?_" he asked, shouting now. He shook her shoulders, trying to shake an answer out of her.

"Get _off_!" she shouted, lifting a leg and shoving him roughly away with her foot. She turned to run as he stumbled backwards but he threw himself forward and hooked her around the ankles. She came down roughly, getting a mouthful of sand in the meantime. She sputtered, trying to clear out her mouth of the stuff, but as she did so, she felt her hands being brought together and tied.

* * *

"Greg Sanders?" Brass called loudly. He was standing on the white sands of the beach, the bonfire before him emitting a thin, steady stream of gray smoke. "Catherine?"

About three or four other rescuers were walking around as well, peering into the woods, walking along the shoreline.

"Sara?" Brass shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth. Then suddenly he heard a faint noise to his left. He looked over, his stomach turning. His face was unshaved; his hair disheveled as if he hadn't bothered to comb or even shower in several days.

"Hey!" he shouted, taking a few more steps toward the left end of the island.

A faint call answered him, "Brass!" He could barely make it out.

"I found them!" he shouted to the other rescuers. "They're over here!"

He jogged through the sand, nearing a turn, and just when he was close to reaching it, Greg, Catherine, Ecklie, and two kids whose pictures he had only seen on the news and in the examination of the flight in the case.

He choked, though he didn't show it. Everyone back at the lab had been hit hard by this, all of them fearing the worst, and now they were here, safe and sound and appearing to be better off than they could have been.

When he reached them, they stood there for a few moments, before Brass said, "Are…are you all alright?"

"Do." Catherine muttered into her hand. "By dose is broked."

"We'll get that taken care of. There're a couple of helicopters out there that were helping us look around." He paused and gulped. It wasn't like him to be emotional.

"We're all righd Brass…" Catherine assured him, reaching out and giving him a one-armed hug. He returned it and then released her. Contact. Official proof that they were all right there…except for one…

"Where's Sara? She radioed in!"

"She hasn't come back yet." Greg said, putting Lauren down on the ground when she started to squirm. "We're worried, this isn't a big island. We were about to go look for her when Matt saw you guys coming."

Brass looked nervous. "Grissom and them were looking into this Dan what's-his-face…he's some bad man. Killed his brother's girlfriend and let his brother take the blame. Kind of a psychopath…"

"We realized…" Catherine mumbled. "He dearly drowded. Laured by droppid her off a cliff…"

"We need to find Sara." Brass said firmly, solemnly. He brushed past Greg and Catherine, waving for the other rescuers to follow. As he turned the corner, he pulled out his gun.

* * *

"Do _not _run. I need to know." Dan lifted Sara up from the ground by her bound wrists. He turned her around and placed his hands on her shoulders once again. "Did you, or did you not radio in?"

Sara remained silent.

"_Tell me!_" he shouted.

"Why do you even want to know?" Sara answered. Her stomach was still twisting but this time it was out of fear.

"What do you mean? Of course it matters! If you people get saved, I'm going to jail, damnit! I won't last in there, I'll go crazy!"

Sara refrained from informing him he already was.

"You haven't answered me! Did you or did you not?" he cried, giving her another rough shake.

Again, she didn't answer. What good was it going to do if she did? There was no telling what he would do if she responded in the way he didn't want her to.

His eyes were crazed and his breathing came in giant heaves that raised his shoulders as he took them.

"Uggh!" he cried in enragement, "That's it! I'll make you tell me!" He dragged her sideways, towards the curling ocean waves.

"What are you doing?" Sara asked, starting to struggle against his force.

"I'm going to make you talk."

Sara stared ahead at the water, glistening and beautiful. There was pretty much only one thing he could be planning to do.

"All…all right…I radioed in. I talked to a rescue plane; they're coming to get us."

Dan spun his face to hers.

"You _what_?"

"I radioed! They're coming!"

Dan's eyes widened and he frowned, still breathing heavily.

"They're…they're…coming?"

Sara nodded.

Dan looked as if he was scrounging the last of his brain, trying to come up with some sort of way to get out of his situation.

"No…can't…I can't…but…" he muttered crazily, still gripping Sara's bonds. "There can't be…no…no…murderer…no crime…no witnesses…no…all right…" He turned to Sara again. "No witnesses, no murderer, no crime." And he began to shove Sara forward, towards the glistening water.

"W-wait…you…you don't have to…you…" She began to struggle harder now, trying to back up as he pushed and pulled her forward. Her fingers were working on prying the vines apart but they were done too tightly.

"There's no way I'm going to jail." Dan said heatedly, shoving her forward a couple of feet.

"But…but maybe you won't! Maybe you can plead insanity!" Sara offered.

They were standing in the water now, ankle deep in it. He turned his face to look into her eyes again, firmly, authoritatively.

He then uttered, saying each syllable firmly and with emphasis.

"I am _not _crazy."

Dan then pushed her roughly downwards, causing Sara's knees to buckle into the water, and then he pushed forward, shoving her entire face into the water. She kicked, fighting it, trying to force her head back out for air. He pushed her harder, holding onto her hands with one hand and the other keeping her head under. The more she struggled the more he tightened his grip.

She screamed underwater, nothing coming out but a bubble of air. She kicked, but he stepped across the backs of her legs. Sara stopped screaming, a headache beginning to form, stabbing her forehead. Her lungs were burning angrily, screaming as she had been. The fight was gone, but the feeling of his large sausage fingers on the back of her head kept her aware of where she was. She coughed out a bubble of carbon dioxide and reflexively she took in a gasping breath of nothing but water. She choked…her sight went hazy…her lungs burned unbearably…

* * *

"Sara?" Brass yelled, jogging along the eastern side of the island. "Sara!" The others followed him through the sand. Brass was inwardly cursing. Where could she be? Why has she taken so long? She had said she would be there at the fire but she hadn't been and nobody else had been, meaning she hadn't gotten to them to tell them what she had found out. He was following a set of footprints in the sand, no doubt Sara's.

They neared a right turn, and Brass continued at his brisk pace, his gun at the ready.

"Sara!" he called. No response. His stomach was in knots, very nervous knots. He reached the corner, and caught sight of a rather chubby man's back, several yards along the beach, standing ankle deep in the water, bent over slightly as if he were looking at something…or…

"Sara!" Greg shouted, catching sight of Dan, and floating dark hair on the surface of the water.

Dan's head swiveled toward them and his eyes widened; like a deer in the headlights of a car, only this time it was in the path of a Brass's gun barrel.

"Let go!" Brass ordered, his face twisted in anger.

Dan turned his head back to Sara, floating motionlessly in the waves, and turned back around.

"Put your hands up!" Brass ordered, still aiming his gun at him.

He paused for a couple of seconds, still looking dumbfounded, but then Dan left his hands down, putting one into his pocket, smiling broadly.

And Brass fired.

* * *

**A/N: I'm alive:D Be happy! Sorry it took me more than a month to update. All in favor of hating school, say I! I! All right, well I updated. And there is officially one chappie-ter left. HUGS for all the over150 readers of my most popular story:D I originally had a less climactic version of this chapter left where Sara comes back and is all happy with everybody else and then they go to the bonfire to get rescuedand Oh noes! Dan has thrown himself in the fire and is dead. Well, I decided to go with a slightly more action-packed version, so...yeah...**


	15. The End

**Chapter 15**

As soon Dan collapsed onto the ground, Greg, Brass, and a couple of rescuers ran forward towards Sara's lifeless body. It had been pushed up onto the sand by the waves and now lay there, still and unmoving. Catherine hung back, her face broken, Lauren bouncing up and down at her side, trying to get an answer out of her. Matt looked nervous, hiding partially behind Catherine's leg and quietly watching the scene proceed before him.

"Sara…Sara!" Greg shouted, kneeling down at her side, ignoring the corpse of Dan a foot or so from him. He reached out to her wrist and placed two of his fingers along it. "Slow pulse… I don't think she's breathing!" He sounded panicked.

Brass took control. "Move over Greg!" He knelt down as well, feeling for a pulse himself. It was there…barely…and her chest was not rising and falling with moving air.

"Do you know CPR?" Greg asked in a slight panic.

"Yeah…yeah I do…" Brass then muttered, "Airway, breathing, circulation…right," He placed the back of his hand close to Sara's nose and mouth, feeling no sign of air, then slowly tilted her head back. "Greg this is a learning experience. Watch for her chest to rise and tell me if it doesn't…"

"Okay," Greg said breathlessly, kneeling nearby, his mouth open in anxiety. His tongue felt dry, stuck to the roof of his mouth. Brass pinched Sara's nose closed, and gave her two slow breaths. He lifted his head up.

"Nothing." Greg said, gulping.

"Again," Brass readjusted the position of Sara's head, repeated the two breaths, and this time, when he pulled away two sharp, spluttering coughs came from Sara's mouth and her eyes opened with a panicked expression.

"Are you okay?" Greg asked earnestly.

Sara, still coughing, leaned to the side and vomited out a large amount of water, which soaked into the sand.

"Your…hands are tied…I didn't notice…" Brass noted. He reached around to Sara's back and undid the vine wrapped around her wrists. "Saltwater isn't too nice on the stomach." He was breathing heavily, like he had just run a marathon, though it was probably excess adrenaline running through his body.

Sara continued to cough, sitting upright, holding the back of a shaky hand to her mouth, the saltwater on her face from tears.

"Is she okay?" Catherine had come, deciding this was too important for her not to be a part of. Lauren and Matt sat back with Ecklie, who looked somewhere between his usual grumpy self and concern.

Sara answered her, nodding vigorously, though she continued to cough violently. She tried to gulp down some air, trying to steady her breathing, trying to take in deep slow breaths. She was alive.

Brass finally turned to the dead body of Dan, splayed out on a small puddle of blood merging with the sand and dyeing it its crimson color.

"All right," he said to the two rescuers who had followed him. "I want you two to stay with this body. Cover it with leaves, blankets, anything to protect it from the elements. Catherine, go tell the other two of these guys I want them to take Sara, and the two kids back with them to the rescue plane. She needs to get looked at. And actually, you go with. That broken nose needs to get treated ASAP. Tell them to tell the helicopters to head this way. They'll pick the rest of us up."

Catherine nodded and bent down next to Sara, wiped her own blood onto her pants and placed her hand on Sara's shoulder.

"Sara, cad you stad up?"

Sara nodded once more, and slowly hoisted herself upright. She was shaking and still trying to catch her breath. Catherine wiped one of her bloody hands onto her pants and then helped Sara across the sand.

"Are you okay, Sawa?" Lauren asked, breaking away from Ecklie and coming over to them. Her big brown eyes gazed at Sara in such a way it would be a surprise if somebody didn't give her what it was she wanted, in this case information.

"Yeah…yeah Lauren I'm fine…" Sara said, her voice hoarse.

"Ecklie, Brass bight wad to talk to you." Catherine said, "We cad take de kids frob here…" She turned to the male and female rescuers before her, both in cop clothing. "Brass said to take us to de plade ad to tell de helicopters to cob pick deb up…" She looked back at the rest of them. "You bight wad to ward theb of de dead body…"

Ecklie headed off towards Brass and Greg, who were helping with the covering of Dan's corpse. When he reached them, he stood back and watched.

"Take a look in his pockets…anything in there?" Brass asked.

One of the men reached into both pockets.

"Nothing, Detective."

Brass let out a heated sigh.

"This shooting is going to be under question."

"Hey, Brass," Greg said, "Any way to…to know when those helicopters are going to get here?"

Brass turned to him.

"I don't see why it matters, Greg," He grinned, "You're going home no matter what."

* * *

Greg sat in the left, backseat of Brass's rented SUV. Sara sat next to him, stuck in between him and Ecklie. She was asleep or at least resting, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on top of them. Ecklie was awake, and still looked like his permanently grumpy self, one hand resting on his flattened fist as he gazed out the window at the passing cars on this Hawaiian highway.

Catherine was in the front passenger seat, sleeping. Her nose had been packed with cotton and it now sported a skin-colored bandage across its bridge. Lauren and Matt were in the car behind them, a social worker escorting them to the hotel. They had all spent one observatory night in the hospital after getting off the plane. And they were now going to a hotel for a single day and a single night of relaxation before they would be taken back across the Pacific to the Las Vegas airport. Grissom, Nick, Lindsey, Catherine's mother, and Warrick would all be there, waiting for them, and Lauren and Matt's family would be there too.

After getting off the plane at the Hawaiian airport, they had been bombarded with shouted questions and flashing cameras as they got into the ambulance. A couple of news vans had even followed behind them as the ambulance took them to the hospital. They had managed to shake them off then, and while they were in the hospital Brass had grudgingly gone shopping and gotten them all a couple of clean new outfits.

Greg yawned during his small reminisce. Things felt so comfortable and new, sitting in this car, feeling fabric against his skin. The glass windows, the roadways, the buildings, the cars—it felt nice, and he appreciated them more now than ever. And now that he was at least back in civilization, he felt nervous about going back home. Almost.

"Here we are…" Brass declared. He turned the SUV quickly into a parking lot. Greg poked his face between the two front seats, trying to get a proper glimpse of the hotel. The front of the building faced the ocean, the sun shining down on it and reflecting brilliantly. Quite a few people were down on the beach, playing in the sand and swimming through the water.

Brass stopped the car, and as he, Greg, and Ecklie all opened their doors, the social worker's car pulled up in behind them.

"They're so exhausted," the woman said affectionately as she stepped out and greeted Brass. "Poor kids…both of their parents…"

Brass nodded in agreement. The woman had dark brown hair, big blue eyes, tanned skin, and was dressed warmly in a suit and nylons.

"Nice hotel…" It was Sara, and she had just stepped out of the vehicle, large bags under her eyes.

"You guys can go right on in," Brass said. "Don't forget Catherine. She's—"

"I'm awake!" Catherine appeared on the opposite side of the SUV.

Brass nodded at Mrs. Ferguson, the social worker, who turned back to the car and pulled out a sleeping Lauren. Brass then turned to escort the group of adults into the building.

As they walked through the lavishly decorated entrance hall and dining room, they gathered a good number of stares. A little girl who was sitting at a table with her mom and dad broke away from her lunch and began to point at the group passing to the front desk.

"Mommy! Daddy! They were on the news! They were on the news!"

"Lydia!" her mother snapped, pulling her arm down.

"But they _were!_ Don't you remember? They were shot down in their airplane by that bad man and were on an island for _four days_! Don't you remember?"

Brass walked up to the front desk, spoke to the man there, and then came out with two sets of keys.

"Men," He handed one key to Greg, "Women." He handed the other to Catherine. "Pretty simple, you think?"

Catherine gave him a playful shove in the shoulder.

"You've got phones in your rooms. Grissom will be calling me sometime around two. I don't know what time it will be there. Who knows? Well he's calling at two, here. Go to your rooms. I'll get your stuff. Have some fun, relax. Hire room service. Go swimming. Have a good ol' hearty meal. Talk to people. Build a sand castle. Get a tan do _something_ to relax. That's why you're here before you go back home. And don't worry too much about the cost of whatever you go to. People at the lab have chipped in to pay for this small vacation."

They chuckled a little bit, then headed off towards a set of stairs.

"Where are you all planning to head first?" Catherine asked, examining the room number on her key.

"A spa. Please tell me they have a spa." Sara said instantly.

"They have a spa." Greg said, passing a blue sign on the wall next to a door that read, clearly, "BATH AND BODY SPA".

"I'm going to the spa."

"Me too." Catherine agreed.

"I—" Greg began, but he was interrupted when a small voice piped up behind them.

"You were on the news, right?"

They all turned around, and there was the little girl Lydia. She had red hair and freckles, with piercing gray eyes and a red-checkered sundress on.

"Umm…I guess we were…" Catherine responded.

"You didn't say anything on there." Lydia said matter-of-factly.

"We were tired." Greg responded.

"Did you kill the bad man? There was a little Hawaiian girl that I met here, she lives here. She said that she knew him and that he was crazy."

"Umm…"

"Lydia!" It was her mother.

The girl ran to the top of the staircase. "Yeah?"

"Are you bothering them?"

She looked her toes, then looked over at the group. She waved goodbye, then hopped down the stairs back to her mother.

They continued to walk down the hallway, room 231…232…233…

"Room 234." Catherine stated, stopping and sticking the key in the hole.

"Room 235." Greg said. He too opened the door to his and Ecklie's room.

Catherine pushed the heavy door open and gasped when she got inside.

"Wow." Sara said, "Forget the spa, I'm staying here."

The room was very large, two double beds along one wall. A sliding door faced a balcony and the ocean. The carpet was white and the walls were a pale greenish-blue. A stunning lamp rested on a beautifully crafted end table between the two beds. The lampshade was green, with tropical insignia along its rim. A phone rested next to the lamp and a memo pad. A large amount of books rested along the top of a wardrobe, with drawers on one half of it and a cupboard on the other. Sara walked forward and opened the cupboard to reveal a mini-fridge stocked with milk, bread, peanut-butter, and chocolate.

A door connected their room with Greg and Ecklie's room. Next to that door was a large television resting on a beautiful stand. Next to that was a small closet with an ironing board and hangers.

"What's the bathroom look like?" Catherine went towards the closed door and opened it with a broad smile. A toilet and sink, the sink in a countertop made out of the same beautiful wood as everything else out in the room, dawned the right wall. A walk-in shower and a large bathtub took up two of the three corners, and everything was outlined with a gold-colored metal. Coconut scented conditioner and shampoo sat on the edge of the marble tub. The walls of the bathroom were tiled, and mosaic palm trees formed a border around the middle of the room.

"This is too awesome." Sara said. She went over to one of the double beds and laid down on it. The cream covers were very soft and comfortable and the pillows were cool and smooth against her sunburned skin. Catherine strode over to the other bed and lay down, running her hand along its length.

"We are going to sleep like queens tonight Sara."

"Hmm…?" Sara mumbled quietly, her eyes closed as she pressed the side of her face into the pillow.

Catherine smiled and opened her mouth to say something when the adjoining door suddenly opened.

"Dude, Cath, did you know there's a Playstation 2 in the TV thing? I am so gonna kick Ecklie's butt!"

"You do that Greg," Catherine mumbled. She too was nesting into the covers of the bed, fully clothed.

"Hey, whatever. If all you want to do is sleep, be my guest but I am going to kick some serious Ecklie butt."

Catherine groaned and lazily threw one of her pillows at Greg, who ducked and closed the door.

* * *

Knock, knock.

Catherine raised her head from the pillow and instantly cringed. Her mouth was extremely dry and her nose was aching. She rubbed her face, pulling her hand down it in an expression of annoyance.

Knock, knock.

"Who is it…?" she asked groggily. She caught sight of the clock beside her bed: 5:37 PM. Crap…she'd missed Grissom's call, missed it horribly. She had been meaning to talk with him to see how Lindsey was.

"It's Lauren!" It was a sweet, adult voice that was nothing like Lauren's.

"Uggh…" Catherine made her way to the door, noting two small suitcases inside it. '_Brass must have dropped off our stuff,' _she thought, looking out the peephole and opening the door.

Mrs. Ferguson stood there, holding Lauren's tiny hand.

"Hey, Lauren…Mrs. Ferguson…is…is there a problem?"

"Lauren's been whining for you two." she said. "Nothing I did would get her to settle down."

"When did she start?" Catherine asked as Lauren released Mrs. Ferguson and instead went to Catherine.

"After she asked about her parents," Mrs. Ferguson frowned, looking pitiful. "I told her that she couldn't see them and she started throwing a temper tantrum."

"Where's Matt?" Catherine asked.

"He's in with the men. Mr. Sanders offered to play videogames with him."

"Oh…well…well, thank you. Is there anything…that we're supposed to do, not supposed to do...?"

"Just keep her happy. I see no reason she shouldn't be with you unless you don't want her to be. She's gone through trauma and apparently she's close to you two."

"All right…thank you…" Catherine said. Mrs. Ferguson waved and walked away as Catherine closed the door.

"I don't like her." Lauren said, pouting. "She won't let me see my mommy and daddy." She looked around the room she was in. "I want to see Mommy." She stuck out her bottom lip at Catherine.

"Umm, Lauren…"

"What's up?" Sara had awakened, rubbing her eyes groggily. She coughed harshly a couple of times then sat up in bed.

"Lauren just got dropped off by that social worker. She wants to see her mom."

"Sawa, will you take me to my mommy?" Lauren whined.

Sara threw an anxious look at Catherine, who looked as equally unsettled.

"Umm…Lauren, about your mom and dad…"

Catherine lifted Lauren up by her armpits and set her on the bed. Sara headed over and she too sat down cross-legged on the bed.

"Lauren…do you remember when the plane went down?" Catherine asked quietly, bent down at eye-level with her.

Lauren nodded.

"Do you remember that your mommy and daddy were in that plane?"

"Yes. But…but I was too."

"You're right! And you got out of there didn't you?"

Lauren nodded.

"Lauren…your mommy and daddy didn't ever get out of that plane…"

She looked confused.

"But…but can't we go get them?"

"Lauren…" Sara entered the conversation, "Lauren, your mom and dad aren't coming back. You can't see them anymore."

"But…" Lauren stammered. "But…but…I _want _to!"

"We know you do." Catherine reached out and brushed a bit of Lauren's hair behind her ears. "We know you do…and we wish you could…but…they're gone."

"No." Lauren said angrily.

"Yes." Catherine insisted slowly, in a soft voice.

"_No!"_ she cried. "No! No! No!"

She began to lash out at Catherine, kicking at her with her brand new Dora tennis shoes. Catherine grabbed her flailing feet in her hands, trying to calm her down.

"Lauren, I'm sorry."

The little girl began to cry. Sara reached around Lauren's neck from behind, holding her closely.

"Lauren, it's going to be alright, okay?"

Lauren twisted around and wrapped her arms tightly around Sara's neck.

"I want my mommy and daddy…" she sniffed.

"I know you do…" Sara wiped her face, which had sprung open with silent tears, and gave Lauren another squeeze. "I know you do."

* * *

A cool ocean breeze blew across the balcony the next morning when Sara opened the sliding door and stepped out. She was wearing an orange shirt and khaki capris; her feet dawned with new brown sandals. She held onto a cocktail glass as she closed the door behind her and swept over to the balcony edge, placing her arms across it.

The balcony faced the ocean, reflecting the peaceful sunrise, nothing breaking the reflection other than the calm waves groping at the sandy shore. Sara took a sip from her drink, then lowered it and swirled the paper umbrella around the rim. A small family of three was loading into their minivan. Sara recognized the little girl as Lydia. She scampered across the parking lot with a pinwheel in her hand and her light hair flying out behind her.

Sara absently watched them load into their vehicle, swirling her drink some more. The little girl looked up and caught sight of Sara. She waved fervently as her mother tried to coax her into the van. Sara offered her a small smile and wave, which was cue enough for Lydia to obey her mom.

The van closed up and drove out of the parking lot, a bit of light gray smoke puffing out from the exhaust pipe. Sara sighed. It felt good to see the everyday things once again. Even after four days (Or was it five? She could never remember) of being stuck on that island, she had learned to appreciate the modern gifts that surrounded her today, the abundance of food, the joy of electricity, and most of all…a toilet.

The sun was rising over the horizon. She was up early, but she didn't feel like she was up that early. She sighed and took another sip from her drink. She had ordered it from downstairs, not feeling quite up to heading down to the gaping people just yet. It felt good to be out here alone, to think about everything that happened and to release any tension before they got back to Las Vegas. Oh to see her apartment again…

Suddenly, she heard the sliding door behind her open. She turned her head and saw Greg coming toward her, similar drink in his hand. He leaned against the railing next to her, without a word.

"Do you want something?" Sara asked, taking another drink and twirling her umbrella again.

Greg shrugged.

"Is Ecklie bothering you?" Sara pressed.

"He snores."

"So do you."

He shrugged again.

"I wanted to see if you were up for an extra early breakfast but you weren't in your room. And then I saw you out here."

"You went into my room when I could have been sleeping?"

Greg shrugged a third time.

"So…what are you doing out here?"

Sara paused, then said, "Thinking."

"About what?"

"Lots of things."

"Name one." Greg took a large sip from his cocktail.

"Umm…how close I came to being murdered for one thing."

"Pure luck you had radioed in beforehand." Greg responded. "Anything else?"

"About how Lauren and Matt are going to grow up with the knowledge of murdered parents."

"They're strong kids. They'll be okay. I suppose it's a good thing it happened when they were young."

"Is it?" Sara asked, looking at the swirling liquid inside her glass, her voice low.

"Well…I…no…no, I guess not."

"It's not fun losing a parent, no matter how old you are."

"And you would know?"

Sara pursed her lips, realizing too late that she had backed herself into a corner.

"My father," she mumbled, shifting her feet nervously, hoping she wouldn't have to explain much further. A stupid hope, she knew, and it was confirmed when Greg continued.

"How old were you?"

"13. You know, I really don't want to talk about it," she said quickly, bringing the glass back up to her lips.

Greg examined her face for a few more moments, before saying, "What else are you thinking about?"

Sara paused.

"How in the beginning I was so annoyed with Ecklie being so impeccably…just…Ecklie and how now I feel a little more tolerant…a little."

Greg paused and stewed in thought of Sara's responses.

"Anything else?"

Sara shrugged this time. "Not really."

"Hmm…do you want to talk about anything?"

Sara looked over at him. "Why am I getting interrogated? What do _you_ want to talk about?"

Greg gave her a sly look. "Well…I don't know…how about after I left you that one night, what did you end up wishing for? And don't say nothing, because that would just be a horrible waste of a shooting star."

Sara stared at the swirling paper umbrella.

"It wasn't that special of a wish, Greg."

"So?"

"I wanted us to get off that island alive and in relatively good shape. And it came true…barely…"

"I'm sure that drowning isn't a very fun way to die." Greg stated softly.

"It's not a very fun in _any _aspect." She paused again, trying to suppress a shudder. She looked out at the ocean. "He didn't say it exactly, but I think he was going to kill everyone else too. No murderer, no witness, no crime. So I guess he'd have ended up killing himself in the end."

"Getting off that island was not a bad wish."

"It was lame. It was either get off the island alive or take a shower."

"Yeah, I noticed your hair was straight again."

Sara reached up and pulled her fingers through her hair.

"And I only got about a million split ends trying to comb through it all."

"Oh no!" Greg said in mock distress.

"Knock it off," Sara said jokingly, giving him a shove.

"You seem tense…" Greg noted, setting his glass on the railing and stepping behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and instantly she tensed up even further. "Well jeez, if you're going to do _that _of _course _you're tense."

"What are you doing?" she asked quickly.

"Giving you a backrub because I think you need one?"

"There's a spa for that you know."

"It's not open this early."

He began to move his hands along Sara's shoulders, kneading her back.

"Besides, we're not in a spa. We're out here drinking cocktails and talking about stuff. And you don't freak out when one of those strangers start giving you a backrub."

"Well…but…"

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm doing this as strictly friend to friend, or coworker to coworker if you don't even want to consider us friends. Or you could pretend I'm that stranger in the spa."

"Greg…you are such a weirdo."

"Merci."

"A French speaking weirdo…"

"Gracias."

He took his hands off her shoulders and picked up his glass from the railing.

"Feeling turned on?"

Sara glared at him.

"No."

"That's good."

Sara rolled her eyes and gave him another shove.

"Hey, am I interrupting anything?" The sliding door was open once again and Catherine stood in it. She was wearing the same wrinkled clothes as yesterday. Her hair was in bed-head mode and the purple bruises beneath her eyes were more prominent than ever.

"No," Sara and Greg said at the same time.

"I woke up and you weren't there…and I heard you talking out here." She rubbed an eye. "I was just going to…to," She tried to hold back a yawn but it came out. "To take a shower…" Another yawn.

"Catherine, you're not allowed to take showers with that nose." Sara reminded her.

"Oh…yeah…a bath. I hope it's got a Jacuzzi setting or something…"

"Good luck with that." Sara said, smiling.

"Well, I was wondering if you guys would get Lauren up and we could all head down to breakfast or something."

"Sounds fun," Greg said. "It'll be fun. I'll go see if Matt wants to go later. He's still sleeping, somehow, with Ecklie's snores."

Catherine turned around and Sara and Greg followed her back into the room, empty glasses in hand. Catherine headed into the bathroom and Greg and Sara sat down on a bed. Greg reached over and grabbed the remote from the side table and turned on the television.

"Wanna play videogames?"

"Are you planning on kicking Sara butt now?"

"Yup. You're going _down._"

"You are such a kid." Sara laughed, but she got up and turned on the Playstation despite herself.

Six karate matches and half-an-hour later, Greg was pouting on the floor of the hotel, fiddling around with the controller.

"You only won those last five times because I was going easy on you. I _could _be a lot worse you know. Come on, redo. This time I'm playing for _real._"

"Greg," Sara said slyly, starting up another game. "That's what you said the last four games.

"Yeah, well this time I mean it."

Sara rolled her eyes and pressed start. They both flew into a button-pressing frenzy.

"Gah! Kick-kick-punch! Hiya! Get her! Get her you stupid good-for-nothing—"

"What are you doing?" Lauren was awake.

"Kicking Greg's butt." Sara said, as a deep voice emitted from the television: _'K.O.'_.

"REDO!" Greg shouted, hitting the restart button.

"Naw, Greg, I'm done." Sara set the controller aside. "We have to get Lauren ready for breakfast. I think Catherine's almost done in the bathroom."

The screen started up again and Sara's player stood motionless.

"You're dead meat!" Greg began to attack the lifeless figurine on the screen.

"Greg, it doesn't count if I'm not playing."

"Oh yeah!" Greg threw his hands up in victory as the deep, '_K.O.'_ voice came over the TV again. "I win! I win!"

"Not yet. You still have another match." Sara pointed out.

"Yeah, well…well…"

"Here, Lauren, do you want to play?"

"Yes!"

Sara handed her the controller and then went over to the bathroom door.

"Cath, you almost done in there?"

"Yeah!" Catherine's voice echoed out from inside.

Sara turned around, just as Greg's angry voice broke out. "NO WAY!"

"What?"

"She _beat _me!"

Sara laughed. "Good job Lauren."

"I can't believe it. I was beaten…by a _3-year-old!_"

"Never underestimate Greg." Sara reached over to a suitcase left in the doorway. "Oh, look at this Lauren! Brass can actually pick out little girl clothes!" She pulled out a miniature pair of shorts, the pockets decorated with flowers and a yellow and pink t-shirt.

"I'll go get Matt up." Greg said, sounding disheartened.

"Don't go killing yourself, now."

Greg waved a hopeless hand at her as he closed the adjoining door.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all walking down the hallway towards the stairs, Lauren in her new clothes, Catherine dressed in a red v-neck t-shirt and shorts, Greg in a blue tank top and shorts, and Matt in a monster truck tank top and matching green shorts. Ecklie had decided to sleep in.

As they went downstairs, they gathered more stares from pretty much everybody. Feeling uncomfortable, they ducked over to the dining area. A buffet lined the back wall, brimming with bacon, eggs, pancakes, and boxes of cereal. Several other people were already eating their breakfast, and a couple paused to look up at them as they tried to pass over to the food as inconspicuously as possible.

With full plates, they sat at a table far in the corner, in a coincidentally good spot to watch the early morning news.

"Oh now this should be interesting…" Sara said sarcastically, swallowing her bite of eggs. "Look," She pointed at the television with her fork. There they were, filing off the plane, Sara, Lauren, Matt, and Catherine.

The voiceover of a reporter was heard, "A total of six survivors on a plane of nine, not counting the pilot and crew, exited their rescue plane yesterday afternoon. The four surviving adults had been reportedly going to Australia for a seminar regarding their careers, and the two surviving youngsters had been merely going on vacation, only to tragically lose both of their parents in the crash."

"Oh my God…" Sara said, "I am so glad there were no mirrors on that island…my hair is enormous…"

"Your hair?" Catherine declared, "My _nose!_ Uggh, they should have censored that!"

"Quiet!" Greg snapped as the reporter began to speak again, standing in front of a ramshackle hut near what looked like a road.

"This is the home of Daniel Porter, a well known citizen in his community as well as the owner of a successful auto-repair shop. He was known around the neighborhood as a relatively lonely person, who didn't go out much except to work, where he would do his job, and then come home to tinker around.

Little did people realize that this tinkering had served a much more sinister purpose these past couple of months. This runway was for his private plane, which was used to shoot down the airplane of those six survivors. Let's here what some acquaintances of Mr. Porter have to say…"

A man came up on screen, all the hair on the top of his head nestled around his chin.

"He's was…kind of strange. I know I felt uneasy around him. Kinda…kinda an indescribable feeling, really."

A new person, a pretty young woman.

"Mr. Porter was my boss. I was secretary at his shop. He was always really into telling stories…he told me once…once about this one girl he knew, and about how I reminded him about her. I quit soon after. When he told me about it he was acting kinda weird…kinda strange, not himself."

More people, the word strange coming up more than once in more than one person.

Then the reporter came up once again, "We're still pressing the law enforcement for information, but we're getting there. The survivors were treated at the capital's hospital, and are now relaxing at a hotel before they head back home tomorrow. Our prayers and thoughts are with them as they try to recover from this ordeal."

The news then changed to a different story and the group let out a heavy sigh.

"Glad we're not the only one's who know he's crazy." Sara said, poking her pancakes with her fork.

"Ah, well…" Catherine said. She picked up a piece of bacon and nibbled at it. "He's dead. He won't be bothering us anymore and we won't have to worry about anybody trying to shoot down our plane on the way home."

"Knock on wood!" Greg cried.

Catherine rolled her eyes and tapped the table with her knuckles.

They continued to eat, chatting and joking about random things, now oblivious to the numerous stares they were gathering. They gossiped about Ecklie a little bit…wondering if he_ did_ have giant hickey from getting pulled out of the quicksand or if he was eating all the chocolate in the mini-fridge for breakfast.

About an hour later, joyful and with full bellies, they still remained at the empty table, still talking, carefree and completely enjoying themselves.

"Sawa," Lauren asked, poking her arm. "I'm bored."

"Oh…umm…well, I…there's a gift shop down that way, do you want to go look at that stuff?"

"Yeah!"

They set off down the lavish hallway, once again trying to dodge the numerous wide-eyed tourists around them.

"Ooh…Lauren, look at all this!"

"What?" Lauren peeked out from behind Sara at the large gift shop filled to the brink with assorted knickknacks.

"See anything you like? Don't forget, we're just going to look." Sara asked, holding Lauren's hand and looking around herself.

"What's that?" Lauren pointed over at a pegboard full of key-chains.

"Those are key-chains. You put your keys on them so they don't get lost."

Lauren dragged Sara towards them and they began to examine the various designs.

"Do you want to look at anything Matt?" Catherine asked.

Matt looked quietly around the brimming walls then pointed over at a set of activity books.

They examined the numerous trinkets for awhile, the adults feeling slightly anxious with everybody coming into the room gawking at them.

"Alright Lauren, our plane leaves in a couple of hours." Sara said after awhile. "We should get going to other stuff we'd like to do." _Spa. Spa. Spa._

"But I want it!" Lauren cried, picking up one of the hula girl chains.

"Lauren, we don't have any money to buy that. We were just looking, remember? I told you that."

Lauren stuck out her lip as Sara took her hand and placed the doll back.

"Please, Sawa?"

Catherine, Matt, and Greg joined them.

"Lauren, we don't have any—"

"Oh my goodness, are you those folks from the news this morning?"

Sara, who had been looking Lauren in the eye as they headed out the door, looked up to nothing. She looked down, and there was a tiny old woman, big blue eyes behind large glasses.

"Umm…I…yes, we are I guess…"

"You poor dears," She frowned. "Herb!" she snapped, twisting her head behind her. "Herb, get over here!"

An old man, Sara's height, headed over, stuffing a stick of bacon into his mouth.

"What's wrong, Rosie?"

"Herb, these are those people that were in that crash, remember?"

"Oh…yes…hello there." Herb waved his large hand at them.

"Hi," they said, returning the wave with modest smiles.

"My goodness, look at you dears!" Rosie said. "You must have been starving there…" She reached out and took Sara's hand, examining her bony fingers and thin wrist. She then put one hand in front of Sara's stomach and the other on her back, measuring the distance with her index finger. "My goodness…you need to get a bit of meat on your bones after that. We'll get you some bacon and eggs if you like, dear."

"I'm…I'm a vegetarian." Sara said uneasily.

"Oh, well that explains it."

Rosie bent down to Lauren.

"Now what was it you were fussing about, sweetums?"

Lauren put on her best pitiful face and said, "I want the dolly chain."

"Herb, gimme your wallet!"

"Now, Rosie, they obviously didn't want her to have it."

"Nonsense! This little girl just lost…well, you know…gimme your wallet!"

Herb rolled his eyes but reached into his back pocket.

"How much was that trinket she wanted?" Rosie asked them.

"Umm…it…it was…$6.50, but you—" Sara answered, still trying to recover from her invasion of personal space by a complete stranger.

"Is there a reason you didn't get it?" Rosie interrupted flatly, perusing through her husband's wallet.

Catherine responded, "We don't have any cash."

"Well in that case," Rosie pulled out a small wad of cash. "Take fifty."

"Oh, you…you don't have to." Catherine said breathlessly

"Take it! Take it or I'll be insulted! You can buy some cover-up for those black eyes, I know I would."

She thrust the money into Catherine's hand then bent down to Lauren again.

"You go get that little thing you wanted, sweetums. You need it, I can tell."

"What do you say, Lauren?" Sara whispered, nudging the girl softly in the side.

"Thank you!"

* * *

The group's plane had passed over the Nevadan border at about 6:00 pm. It was now 6:15. Lauren and Matt sat next to each other, Mrs. Ferguson sitting between them. Sara, Greg, and Catherine were in one row, in that order, with Sara at the window, while Brass and Ecklie sat one row ahead of them. The airplane was only about half-full, and thankfully people were refraining from interrogating them about their little escapade.

Lauren was playing with her hula doll chain on the tray in front of her and Matt was coloring in an activity book. Mrs. Ferguson was sleeping between the two, and was beginning to snore.

After the gift-shop, they had headed in separate directions. Greg had taken Matt surfing and Sara and Catherine had taken Lauren to her first spa treatment. Afterwards they had sat around in their rooms, just hanging out, reading books or playing Playstation. (Greg lost to Catherine as well)

The seatbelt light blinked on suddenly, stirring them all out of their tired stupors.

"Attention to passengers. This is your pilot speaking. It's a calm evening in Nevada this evening. I'd like to alert you all for landing. Seatbelts on, trays up."

They mumbled tiredly as they arranged themselves. Sara peeked out her window at nearby shining lights. And not just shining lights, an entire portrait of lights upon lights upon lights, lighting up an entire city with their multi-colored rays. Hello, Las Vegas.

Excitement began to claw at their stomachs as the plane tilted down slightly. The swooping feeling caught in their stomachs as it tilted even more. Pressure began to build behind their ears. The flaps on the wings lowered, emitting flapping noises. Their ears felt plugged, and their insides continued to squirm.

Further down the plane went, the strange feelings of landing swimming through their bodies. Then it landed. The airplane jiggled for a couple of moments, then slowed down to an easy stop, gliding across the landing strip and slowing to a halt.

"Please remain seated until the stewardess approves for your exit."

More butterflies flooded into their stomachs.

Five minutes later, as they packed up, the stewardesses began to wave the passengers off the airplane.

The squirming in the pits of their stomachs was now becoming a little too much. What was the big deal? They were home. They shouldn't be nervous.

A female flight attendant waved at them as they made their way down the aisle and to the hallway leading out of the gate, her bright red lipstick showing off her brilliantly white teeth. The floor was a generic, rough carpet, smelling freshly cleaned. The walls seemed flimsy, held together by long strips of metal and screws. Lauren, back with Mrs. Ferguson and carrying a small backpack on her back released the older woman's hand and skipped up to Sara and Catherine's sides.

"Who is going to be out there?" she asked.

Sara responded with a slightly shaky voice. "Umm, some friends of ours, and some of your family will probably be there."

"Oh…"

As they stepped down the hallway it seemed to grow narrower and longer, like it would never end. With every step they took it seemed to only get farther away. Catherine swallowed, trying to ease her dry throat and get her tongue down from the roof her mouth. This stupid cotton-packed nose was really bugging her.

They reached a turn in the hallway and when they followed it, a bit of light shown in at them. Catherine, Sara, and Lauren stepped out at the same time. Two seconds passed, before shouts of "Mom!" filled the air and Catherine was catapulted about three feet backwards.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! _Mom!_" Lindsey had clamped her arms around her mother's neck and was now squeezing her closely, rocking back and forth and tears beginning to stream down her face.

"H-Hey, Lindsey." Catherine stammered, partially senseless at the abruptness of her daughter's appearance. She put her arms around her back and held her in return. "Hey there…I missed you…" She sounded choked up, and her bottom lip began to tremble past her wide smile as a single tear overflowed from her blue eyes.

"I thought you were _gone_!" Lindsey sobbed. "I thought I was going to be all alone. My friends kept talking about what it would be like if I was an orphan! Mom! I'm so glad you're home…I'm so glad you're _home_…"

Sara and Greg were smiling, the twisting feeling in their stomach drifting away like they did as Catherine's mother moved towards her open-armed, also crying. They looked over towards the rest of the airport, glimpsing around before catching sight of a small mass of people heading towards them.

Sara and Greg couldn't conceal their grins as they reunited. Grissom came forward first, hooking both of them around the shoulders at the same time and pulling them forward in a strong hug, mumbling about how they tried so hard to find them, and how things had gone from bad to worse when the storm had come and made rescue air travel unsafe. His eyes held a sort of relieved brightness in them blinding the dim, worry that had dwelled in them the four days they had been missing.

Nick came forward next, giving Sara a heartfelt hug and then giving Greg a firm hand-clap, one-armed, back-pat, man-hug. Warrick did the same.

Next to them, another small group of people was picking over Lauren and Matt, lathering on the hugs and kisses. A young boy, older than Lauren but younger than Matt was trying to convince him to skip around. Two teenage girls were fussing over Lauren, who was enjoying the attention profusely. An early-forties couple was trying to squish in to greet their relatives past their children's attention-giving arms.

"You won't believe what sort of stuff happened on that island." Greg declared as Catherine convinced her family to let her join them. She too hugged the rest of them, holding each of them for thirty seconds at least. Brass also met up with them, shared a couple of words with Grissom and then leaning against the back of a chair with the other man.

"Well don't start now," Nick said through his smile, "We—"

But he was interrupted when Lauren and Matt's uncle spoke up. "Umm…are, are you those folks that helped find the crash site?"

"Well, it wasn't really us. Mostly people who are trained to do that sort of stuff." Nick replied to the man.

"But you helped?"

Nick looked around at Warrick and Grissom.

"Yes, we helped." Grissom replied, a small smile amongst his beard.

"Thank you…I can't thank you enough. We…we're upset over…over Lily and Joe, but…but at least Lauren and Matthew are all right." he said breathlessly. "And thank you," He turned to Sara, Catherine, and Greg.

"For what?" Sara inquired, raising an interested eyebrow.

"For watching over Lauren and Matthew the way you did."

Catherine replied, "It was nothing, what were we supposed to do, leave them out there to fend for themselves?"

The man opened his mouth respond but Lauren interrupted, having managed her way out of her cousin's grasp, if only for a minute.

"Sawa, this is my Uncle Ralph. And that's my cousin Libby and my cousin Samantha and my cousin Michael." The three cousins waved at them, smiling. "And that's my Aunt Diana. She likes piggies, remember?"

Sara smiled.

"I remember."

The older teenager, Libby, bent down and lifted Lauren off the ground again.

"She's cute," Sara said, still smiling with her arms folded across her chest.

Libby replied with a small, shy, thank you, and Lauren said, "I sure am so cute!"

That caused them all to laugh.

"We have another plane to catch," Ralph declared. "Again, thank you. And…and if any of you want to…to keep in…touch, I-I could take your addresses or something, letters. Matt knows how to read pretty well. Emails would be fine but, but you don't have to."

"Oh, uh…sure…gimme a…gimme a pen or something, will somebody?" Sara said, glancing around.

Grissom pulled a pen out of his pocket and gave it to Sara. Ralph held out his hand, and Sara wrote across the surface of it.

"That's the address to our work. They'll divvy it up there." She smiled at Lauren. "Keep it touch?"

"You can come to my house." Lauren said, smiling. "We can play house."

Sara grinned. "We could do that. Who do I get to be?"

"The mommy." Lauren beamed.

Matt stepped up to them all, shy and quiet as usual.

"Goodbye," he said softly. "I'm going to miss you. You're really nice."

Catherine was whispering in Lindsey's ear fervently. Lindsey's mouth formed an 'oh' shape and she turned to Matt after he had given Sara and Greg tight hugs.

"Hi Matt. I'm Catherine's daughter, Lindsey. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Umm…" He looked over his shoulder at his family. They nodded.

The two walked off to a couple of empty seats.

Catherine watched them for a moment, faint smile on her face. A few minutes later, Lindsey returned, grinning slightly.

"I did what you said…I hope I didn't make him feel worse or something…" she whispered.

"You did great, honey." Catherine rubbed her back as Matt returned to his new parents, who had begun to talk to Mrs. Ferguson who had finally made her way over now that greetings were done with. The group walked away, the backs of the two children they had watched so carefully over disappearing past a corner, most likely never to be seen again.

"What was that about?" Sara asked Catherine.

She shrugged and then whispered, "I thought Lindsey might have been somebody for Matt to talk to. She was about his age after all."

"Hey, where's Ecklie?" Grissom finally noted after they shared a few bits of chatter.

They looked around, then Sara spotted him, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, arms folded and looking out of it. She headed over to him.

"Hey, you do know that we're sort of waiting for you?"

Ecklie looked up, slightly startled.

"Oh…uhh…sorry, about…that. Umm…yeah, I'll…I'm coming, I'm coming." He turned and Sara fell into stride with him.

"You okay?"

He looked at her.

"Umm…yes…."

"You seem out of it."

"I'm tired."

"You slept in this morning."

"I'm still tired." They walked slower, and Ecklie added, "You know Sara…I have a feeling, that when people are placed out of their usual environment, into a place where they really don't want to be, their personality alters for the worse under that stress. I think it alters almost to an unbearable degree."

Sara stopped and turned to face Ecklie, who also stopped.

"And…and on that island, I think that's what happened. That's what caused the tension."

Sara could hardly believe her ears. Was it really true? Was he really berating himself to somebody _not _the sheriff?

"And for that, I'd just like you to know…"

Sara tried to conceal her eager grin. _This_ was too much.

"I forgive you."

Sara blinked and the grin faded.

"Oh. Oh, umm…thanks Ecklie." She put on a false smile. "Thanks a lot for that."

She placed her hands into her pocket and strode over to the rest of the group, Ecklie following her with a self-satisfied look. It sounded as if they were talking about how they were getting home, and Nick said something Sara couldn't hear, but made the rest of the group chuckle with laughter.

"We should probably start headin' out to the cars." Nick said as the rest of them tried to stop chuckling. "And we can hear all about whatever the heck happened on that island as soon as we get to my place."

"W-w-wait…_your _place?" Warrick answered as they headed out. "No way man, who knows what creepy stuff is in there. Let's go to my house. Tina could cook something up, I'm sure she can cook better than you or takeout."

"Why don't we all go to the lab and settle in and talk in the breakroom?" Grissom offered, though the tone of his voice showed that it was the final decision.

"But I want to know some stuff!" Nick cried, looking over his shoulder as they passed the luggage claim.

"Like what?"

"For one thing, who went skinny-dipping first?"

"Nick!" Sara laughed, kicking at him. "Nobody!"

Nick looked slyly at Warrick. "That's what they _say_,"

"We'll spill everything in the car…" Catherine smiled, pushing open the clear glass doors into the darkened parking lot.

"Can we do it in one car trip?" Greg said as Grissom and Warrick led them over towards the parked Tahoe and another car beside it. Brass entered the second car, Warrick, Ecklie, and Grissom, following him in.

"I don't know, can you?" Nick answered, unlocking the Tahoe and climbing in the driver's seat.

"Where should we start Greg?" Sara asked him, clambering up to the passenger side. Greg piled into the back with Catherine, Lindsey, and Catherine's mother.

"I don't know…what about how we saved Ecklie's life about ten times?"

"What about the fact that he might have a giant hickey?" Catherine offered.

Sara and Greg smirked as Nick chuckled and started the vehicle. He eased the Tahoe out of the parking lot, into the steady fast stream of traffic.

"How about the dolphins?" Greg offered.

"Or…what about the madman?"

"No, too morbid. What about Lauren and her colorful vocabulary?"

"I think when you two decide on something we're going to know everything that happened." Catherine's mother declared, smiling.

"You pick something." Greg offered.

"I have an idea." Nick declared as he halted at a stoplight.

"What's that?" Catherine said.

"Start from the beginning…"

Sara smiled, seated sideways in her seat to face the group in the backseat

"All right then. Umm…it started out with Ecklie annoying the crap out of me…"

And for the entire car ride after that, they went over almost every detail they could recall.

Almost.

**The End

* * *

**

**Authors Goodbyes:**

**Well, it's over. No, there will not be an epilogue. And I highly highly doubt there will be a sequal, because it will have to be full of angst and I do not like, nor do I write (well) angst. So, I tried to make the last chapter all happy days and joyful hoorays. Hey, that rhymes!I've been writing this thing since June, and it all came about because I know that people have always wondered what would happen if the CSI's became stranded, and to my knowledge, never attempted to write it. So I did. **

**Special thanks to ALL of my reviewers. There are too many of you to name. This story is the most popular story I've ever written and my personal favorite (My vegetable series is close behind Waffle, don't worry) If you wantsome more of mysense of strange humor you can check out that vegetable series. It'sstrange,and yet hilarious.**

**Farewell! I'll miss you all, but I feel so self-satisfied with thecompletion of thisfanfiction. It was 118 written pages long!I darned well be satisfied:) Bye everyone! (My goal is 200 reviews, can I make it? Won't be hard. I only need one.)**


	16. Parodyesque Epilogue

**(Parody-esque) Epilogue**

"_The four Las Vegas Crime Lab survivors of the plane crash arrived safely home last week, to a warm welcome and the comfort of home. However, recent reports have declared that one of the survivors, a Conrad Ecklie, has suddenly passed away_…"

Sara and Greg shared a quick glance with each other, trying as best they could _not_ to burst out with wide grins. They turned their heads back to Greg's big-screen TV.

"_It was reported, that Mr. Ecklie had a case of DVT: Deep Vein Thrombosis, which is a deadly, nearly undetectable clotting in the legs. He passed away mere days after arriving back home_…"

Sara remembered that was one of the reasons she had stood up and walked around on their flight. She had feared getting DVT, and Ecklie was now the one who died from it. Revenge was sweet. Not that she had _meant_ for him to die of course. Things just happened to turn out for the better. She certainly wasn't complaining.

"_The sheriff of Las Vegas has forked over the money to pay for the poor man's funeral_…"

"Too bad nobody's going to go to that, huh?" Greg noted, stretching from his position on the couch.

"Oh, yes, so horrible…" Catherine replied sarcastically, from the armchair towards the left of Greg and Sara seated on the sofa.

"Well people who don't know Ecklie for the horrid person that hewas will probably go," Sara said, reaching over to the end table and taking the already opened bottle of champagne and her glass.

"Did you hear if Grissom is going?" Greg questioned, reaching over for his and Catherine's glasses and holding them near Sara as she poured.

"Professional courtesy," Catherine answered, taking her share of the drink from Greg's hand. He rolled his eyes at that.

"Oh!" Sara suddenly exclaimed as she set the bottle down. "I just remembered—I got an email already, from Lauren and Matt. They're doing fine. They said they're happy with their aunt and uncle, and they want us to visit sometime."

"All the way to Wisconsin?" Catherine asked incredulously.

"Wouldn't be too bad." Greg shrugged, gripping his glass. "Be nice to see those little guys again. Wonder if they know that Ecklie's dead."

Sara grinned despite herself, and to cover it up, she lifted her glass. "May he rot in hell…but not too bad—just so we're not dubbed insane for wishing him a lifetime of misery."

"Amen to that," Catherine and Greg replied, raising their glasses to hers and smiling.

_**It was my friend April's idea for this quick little epilogue for you all, since sooo many of you wanted Ecklie to die. This wasn't meant to be a very serious chapter, just a little bit of a parody of what so many of you wanted to happen. ;)**_


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